


IRobot

by Zaylo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Animals, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Blood and Gore, Burns, Confused Lance, Depression, Emotions, Eventual Romance, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith (Voltron), Heartbreak, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Pining Keith (Voltron), Robot AU, Robot Feels, Robot/Human Relationships, Robotics, Robots, Romance, Three Laws of Robotics, Zoo, can robots even be gay, keith is a very gay robot, lion cuddles, pet cuddles, robot keith, that's about it, zookeeper lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-01-11 01:17:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 35
Words: 75,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12311790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaylo/pseuds/Zaylo
Summary: Based on the song "IRobot" By Jon Bellion, Keith is a robot created by the company Widget, made to serve humankind as slaves and assistants. Widgets are made to be emotionless, but Keith is different, and his feeling will drag him through love and heartbreak as he learns how to be a human.Also, Lance is a zookeeper!"Three Laws of Robotics"1)A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.2)A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.3)A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.Tumblr: https://allycattail.tumblr.com





	1. Humanity

Humanity. Are we born with it? Or do we discover it as we grow. Is it just being human, or is it feeling emotions? Were we the only one's who could feel emotions? Are we the only one's who can accomplish humanity? How can we accomplish what we do not even know? Many people have asked themselves these questions, wondering about themselves and the millions of humans that they passed by everyday without a thought. Everyday is another day gone without knowing the answers to what humanity really is.

One day, a group of curious scientists decided to fins out for themselves. This was before the modern age of computers and electric creations. Some would even consider them mad scientists. They kidnapped many people to test them, to dissect them, to try and find what made them really human. They gathered cruel data for many decades until they were discovered and their dark ways were exposed to the light.

The people who remained alive were saved and returned to their lives and families while the dead were given proper burials. The data gathered? It was locked away so no one could ever use it again. Society deemed the data too important and precious to be destroyed. Though gathered through unruly methods, they were answers.

Answers, true, real answers were difficult to get, and if you wanted them, you had to get your hands dirty. When the scientists went on trial to receive the death penalty, they cried out, claiming they were trying to help answer questions no one wanted ask. They said they did everyone a favor by taking the guilt for what they had done.

In the end they were ignored, brushed off as crazy. But the scientists weren't crazy. They were right.

-Decades later, in the year 2117-

The first thing K197H see when he awoke, was a blinding light. He felt stiff and uncomfortable as his eyes were filled with white light. He couldn't move any part of his body to get more comfortable so he instead tried to look around. He managed to turn his eyes, trying to look away from the light.

 

"Subject K197H responsive" A female voice said. K197H? Was that him? "Uploading data." The voice said. The blinding light was shut off and K197H saw a bright white room. He couldn't move his head yet so he let his eyes wander. He was strapped to a diagonal table with two robotic machine arms on either side of him. Where was he? Who was he?

One of the arms moved and he felt something on the back of his head. He felt a small prick and something slid into a small opening in the back of his head right beneath his hairline.

Suddenly his eyes went wide as information flooded his systems. He was a widget, created to serve mankind and assist them with whatever they wished. After the data was transferred to his head, the straps on his arms and legs were released, and he could move.

"Upload complete. Please wait for command"

He used his arms to push off from the table and stand upright. At first he was a bit wobbly but thanks to scanners in his entire body, he quickly righted himself. He lifted an arm in front of him and looked at the pale 'skin'. He was clothed in a plain white leotard with grey details and a zipper in the back.

He slowly lifted his bare foot and then set it down. He felt the need to gather info on everything, so he could use it later. Was he programmed to do that? He answered his own question with a yes.

In front of him, a door opened and a short female walked into the room. She was dressed in a plain blue skirt and jacket. His eyes widened as his scanners kicked in and he searched his data bases for the women's identity. She seemed pleased when he found her profile. Realizing she was of high authority and that he was supposed to follow her every command, K197H dropped his arms to his sides and stood up straight, waiting for an order from the women.

"Goodmorning. I am Lauren McKinley. Please follow me to the testing area." She turned to leave the room and he followed. He was lead into a small room where three other Widgets stood, each with a human to accompany them. The room had various objects that he had no idea what they were.

"We need to test your strength, ability to solve problems, and ability to understand and follow orders." Lauren said to him. "First we will make sure you can follow orders. There is a bottle of water on the other side of the room. Grab it and bring it to me." She said.

K197H nodded and went to say 'yes ma'am' but no words came out. Only a static noise. Lauren let and unhappy look cross her face and K197H was suddenly worried. If he couldn't speak then he wasn't fit to be a Widget. He was defective. Defective Widget's were sent for scrap.

"Hold on a moment, the computer system bugged while uploading your data. It seems a voice was no put in your file." She pulled a small device from her hip and held it to her mouth. It was a communication device of some sort. "Mr. Holt please come to the testing area with a young male adult voice file, we have a Widget who didn't get one." She said to the small device.

"Right away." An older male replied. K197H recorded the voice and found the match in his database and found Mr. Holt's profile. He was one of the top technicians in the Widget company and did a lot of the programming and coding for the machines like himself.

"Until Mr. Holt arrives, we will continue the tests. My orders are the same." Lauren said, holding a clipboard to record his results. He looked to the other side of the room that had various object placed on it. Near the edge was a plain water bottle.

With ease, he made his way over to the table and grabbed the bottle. He grabbed it a bit to tightly and nearly crushed it. Before he could accidentally break it, he loosened his grip a bit. When he turned to walk back, he saw Lauren smile and write something down. Walking back over to her, he held out the battle which she took with a smile.

"Thanks you. Most Widgets usually break the bottle on their first try, but you reacted fast enough. Not only can you follows commands, but you can figure out how to deal with things that may cause a problem to the order. Very good." She said. He nodded and returned to his waiting stance with his arms at his sides.

"Ah, Ms. Mccinley! There you are! You forgot to tell me which of the testing areas you were in." A voice said with a laugh. K197H turned to see an older male wit graying hair walk into the room and over to them. He held a small flash drive in his hand, similar to the one that he had in his earlier. "So this is what the young adult models look like. They look much better in reality than on the computer and on paper." Mr. Holt said.

He handed to drive to Lauren and looked at K197H. "He has been preforming very well, Mr. Holt. He didn't break the bottle for the order test." Lauren pointed out.

"Is that so? Impressive." Mr. Holt took a step closer to him. "Have you tested his scanners yet?" He asked. Lauren shook her head. He smiled. "Alright, my turn."

Holt stood in front of the Widget and held his arms open. "I request a full body health scan." He said. K197H nodded and his eyes widened,glowing a bit as the scanners in his eyes looked over the older male. He had to look up at one point due to a height difference.

After a moment, he had the results of the scan in his data base. He went to say the results but only static came out.

"Right! Whoops my bad." Lauren exclaimed. She quickly moved behind him and inserted the drive into the port on his neck. More codes flew into his system and looked to Mr. Holt.

"Your symptoms include arthritis, respiratory infection, and weak eyesight. Two of which may be fatal if nor properly treated but my scan indicates that you are already on medication and have prescribed eye wear such as glasses." He said. He hadn't even tried to say it, but the words came out of his mouth anyways. His voice was low and a bit gravelly.

Mr. Holt smiled and nodded. "Very good. I picked a fitting voice and you are functioning better than most Widgets. Usually the scanning process would take longer and it would normally take a moment to process the data but you did it instantly. Amazing." He seemed very impressed, and K197H felt something that he couldn't quite describe. He was pleased with the results he was giving but there was something more. Oh well, probably just a small bug from being a new system.

"Now we just need to test your physical strength and problem solving." McKinley said. Mr. Holt waved a goodbye and left the testing area. "We will do problem solving first."

They spent the next hour or two solving various puzzles, matching pictures to words, and identifying different sounds. Lauren even challenged him to a match in chess, but she lost not even a few minutes in. The victory had left her baffled as she wrote down notes.

"You have some very promising results. This means you will probably be sent to a very wealthy person or family." She explained. K197H nodded. "Shall we start physical strength?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am." He said. They moved to another corner of the room where there were bulky machines and various weights laying around. First she had him lift some weights with different arms and such. She was yet again impressed with his results.

"I'm starting to wonder if they tried new codes with your line of Widget," Lauren commented to herself. "These results are amazing. You have top rates in every category."

After a few more weights and tests, K197H was ready to be assigned. They would put a base price on him and post his information in the system and then sell him to the highest bidder. Usually companies purchased Widget's to work in factories since they had no need for sleep or breaks, but it was not uncommon for a family owned business or a single person to buy one.

As they left the testing area, K197H got a glance in a body mirror to get a look at himself. He had long coal black hair and dark grey/purple eyes with a thin build. He wasn't super tall but he wasn't exactly short either. More of a happy in between.

Lauren took K197H to find an outfit for him. For that they went to a small dressing room and found him some nice black pants and shoes with a clean red button-up shirt. She said that red suits him well and left to find him a tie. While he waited, the robot looked around at the various clothing items hanging and thought about his future as an assistant.

With his results he was bound to be sent to a wealthy family as a person assistant or something like that. Widget's were priced based on a level. A scale of one to ten. Lauren had said that he was a nine, almost a ten. The number ten was saved for when the company discovered how to create emotions. That was his guess anyways.

Lauren returned and the two went to the main room of the building. The building itself was huge with many glass windows on every floor. The main room was on the 15th floor and that's where most Widgets stayed until they were assigned. He followed Lauren to the far end of the room to have his data input into the company system along with a picture of himself. With is stats, he wouldn't have to wait too long for a buyer.

Lauren sent him to an area with small 2 foot wide platforms where Widgets stood, perfectly still in waiting. Many humans walked through, looking at the waiting robots either to buy or just to look. K197H stepped up onto the platform that had his info displayed on a small screen beside it.

"Alright, this is where i leave you. Good luck and i hope you find a good home." Lauren said. She almost looked sad that she had to leave. "If i had enough money i would probably buy you myself, but i would need this job seven times over just to be able to afford a Widget like you." She smiled. "You're....Different somehow. You eyes aren't dead like the others." Without another word, she turned to leave.

K197H stood on the platform, repeating Lauren's words him his head. What had she meant about his eyes? They didn't feel dysfunctional, or different. So, how was he different? His coding was similar to all of the other Widgets. He had even made a scan on one of the ones displayed near him just to make sure.

So, what made him so special? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment and leave critiques! They are greatly appreciated! I will also consider suggestions for scene in the story!  
> If you want to draw fanart PLEASE DO! I would love to see it! I will be posting a tumblr blog for this story very soon and i would love to display your wondeful creations!


	2. Gifted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> K197H finds someone to take him home, but before he leaves, Lauren leaves him with some interesting questions.

K197H was special, and everyone knew it. In a period of one day, he had been admired by a least a thousand people. When his test results had been uploaded to the company system, everyone wanted him. He was the top Widget of the year and in nearly every way, a perfect example of robotics at it finest. 

His profile on the online portion of the company had been viewed in numbers that reached the million. Like most Widgets, he had been put in an online auction, and when midnight hit, the highest bidder would claim him and out him to work. Some Widgets were pre-ordered for factories or small businesses, but Widgets in his class were auctioned. The majority of the companies money came from auctioning Widgets like himself. 

It was only early evening and the highest bid was at $89 million. K197H estimated that it would be in the billions by nightfall. The other Widgets auctioned along side of him usually made it to $30 million before they were shipped to their new owners.

The building would be closed to the public in the next hour, so only a few people remained. Most were people who worked here, others were placing bids or orders. One man had someone with him, however.

An aged male, who looked to be somewhere in his early 50's walked over to the auction corner, where K197H and several other Widgets stood on display. He was wearing a suit and tie, and had a electronic chart in his hands. On the list were the codes and profiles of the Widgets in front of him. At the mans side, was a girl who looked about 20. She wore simple jeans, a tank top and a blue flannel patterned shirt. Looking a bit closer, K197H noticed that she had a huge smile on her face as the man beside her scrolled through the profiles.

"Alright, pick one out. When you find one you think would work, let me know and i'll place the bid." The man said. The black haired Widget did a quick scan and discovered that this man was the owner of a very wealthy company that made part's for machines, such as Widgets, and many other electronic items. The girl, was his daughter. And it was her birthday.

"Hmm, let's see." She said, walking around the auction corner, looking carefully at each Widget. She stopped by one nearby him and scrolled through the profile displayed on the glass screen beside the pedestal. "I'm looking for one that has good learning capabilities, and strength mainly." She said.

K197H looked at the girls profile a bit further. Her name was Violet. Violet had a small business of her own that was pretty much the opposite of her fathers. She ran a company that house tame endangered species and other exotic animals. Maybe she needed a hand in taking care of the animals? It would explain the learning and strength that she was checking for.

Violet moved on, and stopped to look at K197H's profile. He personally believed he was the one fit for the job if animals were the item of work. Seeing as he passed the water bottle test earlier with flying colors, it meant he could handle fragile things with ease. And by the expression of mild surprise on Violets face, she knew the same thing.

"Hey dad come here for a sec." She said, waving her father over. His feet tapped quietly against the floor as he made his way over to the birthday girl. "Look at this one. He's top rated! If it's supposed to be a he. Can't really tell with the hair."

K197H wondered what she meant about his hair. Sure it was longer than most males, but that didn't mean he looked like a girl.

Violets dad moved to look at his profile, and then up at him. Remembering he wasn't supposed to stare at people (Mccinley said it was seen as creepy) he quickly shifted his gaze elsewhere in the room. Before he couldn't even do anything else, Violets face suddenly filled his vision and his eyes locked with her dark brown ones.

"Woah! Dad check it out they gave him purple eyes!" She said, seemingly very eccentric. She was 20 with the personality of a 10 year old. Good to know.

When her dad looked up he panicked a bit. "Sweetheart, i love you but you aren't supposed to climb up there!" He gently pulled her don from the pedestal and she pouted.

"I wanted a closer look at it." She stated simply. "I'm too short to see his face from down here." Her dad groaned in frustration. Situations like this one must happen a lot.

"Alright, this place closes soon, pick one so we can have it shipped to your zoo by tomorrow." Her dad stated. She suddenly looked highly offended.

"It's not a zoo, dad, it's a safe house for living creatures!" Violet exclaimed. K197H made and estimated guess that she was probably a vegetarian. Her profile bio said that she had a strong love for animals and worked as a conservationist. With newer technology and expanding cities, even pigeons were not a comment sight anymore.

"And, i want this one. He looks more human than the others, and his stats are perfect." Violet said. Her father nodded and went to place a bid. This man must really love his daughter, because the number went from $89 million to $4 billion. 

The woman at the front desk on the other side of the room, her jaw dropped at she watched the bid from her computer, and Violet laughed. Her face was priceless. 

K197H doubted the bid would go any higher that night. Not unless someone was desperate to get their hands on a Widget like him.

"Alright, if the bid holds, he should arrive tomorrow afternoon to your 'safe house'" Violets dad said, patting her on the shoulder. "Happy birthday." He said, turning to leave. Violet smiled and hugged him. The moments later, the two turned to leave. 

There was only a few minutes until lights out so soon he would be moved into a back room. Leaving expensive items in the main room at night wasn't the best idea in case someone tired to break in. The security was great, but that doesn't mean there were people who couldn't get in. 

Deciding to be productive, K197H pulled up various files of Violet and where she worked. The wildlife preserve was called 'Animal kingdom' due to it's variety in animal types. The animals she owned ranged from leopard geckos to many birds of paradise and even an albino stag. Fortunately she had licenses to own all of them so none of the animals were illegal. 

There was an add on the main website that said that volunteers and employees were needed, but no one in the area seemed interested, Maybe that's why she wanted him so badly. 

K197H downloaded the data to him systems for later as he saw a group of people step out the elevator on the other end of the large room. Lauren was one of them. The group made their way to the auction corner and the pedestals lowered. It was time to pack up for the night so their handlers came to lead them to the room where they would be kept until shipping.

K197H stepped from where he was displayed and went to stand by Mccinley. "Good job, you just got us a few billions dollars!" Lauren stated happily. "And because i'm your caretaker until tomorrow, i get a raise for this paycheck." She smiled.

He felt something in his chest, and wasn't sure what it was. It wasn't in his programming codes, and a quick scan showed nothing. The feeling was soon gone, leaving him confused. However, it didn't feel bad.

Lauren turned to walk and K197H followed close behind her. He let one of his hands rest on the area he felt something from earlier, trying to make the feeling come back to he could find out what it was, but nothing happened. He shook it off a small system error that had fixed itself.

Once in the back rooms, he saw small stand up charging stations, and long flat crates that had a frightening similarity to coffins. However they were just used to ship individual Widgets.

Lauren led K197H to a charging station and helped him plug in. "Once your shipped out you will have to charge yourself. The box your are shipped in has several different cords, so that way you can charge at any outlet. Once your owner pick a cord, you keep that with you and when you get to %15 power, find a spot and charge." She said.

"Yes ma'am." He said, remembering the instructions. "What should i do of there is more than one outlet type?" He asked. Lauren seemed a bit shocked.

"I'll have to add that to your report. Usually Widgets figure out things like that once they arrive to the owner. You thought ahead. Clever." She said with another smile. "You really are something special." Lauren's face chanced to one of simple awe in the form of a small smile. She stayed like that for a moment before shaking her head. "Sorry, i was staring."

"Why?" He asked. He wasn't sure why he asked, but the words came out anyways. She seemed almost as surprised as he felt.

"You're......different. And not just because you have good ratings. I was staring because, you almost seem human." She admitted. Human? Nothing about him was human. Was there? Sure he was designed to look human, but it was easy to tell machine from living. "They way you move, the way you act and react to things, your eyes. Your so human like that it scares me a bit." She admitted.

"Sorry." He said. She let out a soft chuckle.

"It's not a bad thing. It just makes you special. I stand by what i said earlier. If i could afford it, i would take you home. Show you what i mean by special." She reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't apologize for being who you are." Lauren turned around without another word, and left. By now the other Widgets had been put in sleep mode and their handlers were gone. 

He suddenly felt very alone in that moment. Could he even feel alone? Were Widgets supposed to feel? If they were feelings, how would he know? Machines didn't have feelings so it was impossible. And what had she meant by being 'Him'? Who was he? He was just another Widget, a robot to be used. A tool.

Tools couldn't have feelings, or be human. Lauren had said that he was, but the wires in his body and the soft hum of the machinery beneath the fake layer of skin said otherwise. 

But Lauren made it pretty clear that he wasn't like any other machine.

So what made him so special?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! This chapter is a bit shorter than the last one, but oh well i was in a hurry. I am sad to say that i do not have a set updating schedule due to the fact that a lot is happening in my life right now but i will try to add a chapter once or twice every week.


	3. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite Widget gets a home and a name!

The next morning, things moved rather quickly. K197H's bid hadn't gone any higher than what Violet's dad had put in, so his new owner was decided to be her. He was pleased that the job had been given to him, since he knew that he would preform greatly. His purpose was to please his owner in any way possible.

All of the widgets were moved to special cases with their codes and their owners address on them, and then sent to different trucks to be delivered. Widgets were put in sleep mode for the trip and would be activated fully by their owners. Each shipment had it's own truck so they would arrive quicker than normal packages. Time would have been a blur for K197H if he hadn't had an internal clock in his system. 

He arrived to him new home within a matter of hours. During those hours he had tried to make sense of what Lauren had told him, but he had nothing. In sleep mode, Widgets were stiff aware of their surroundings, they just couldn't react to them or move.

He could hear muffled voices outside of his case as the truck came to a stop. He recognized one of the voices as Violets. While his eyes were closed, he could feel his case moving as he was wheeled out of the truck. He wasn't sure why the company wasted money on cases when they could just have the Widgets sit in the passenger or backseat of a car. It's not like they were going anywhere.

His case opened swiftly and sunlight could be seen through his eyelids. The air was warm and a bit dry. It hadn't rained here for a while, he was guessing. 

"Alright, so how do i activate him?" Violet asked to the delivery guy. He heard the rustling of paper, probably him manual. They still had paper back ones? Most usually had tablets. "Ah, ok. I see."

He heard footsteps approach him. "Widget K197H, vocal recognition. Set to main command." Violet stated clearly. He set her profile to the top of his command list and just like that she was his new owner. He now had to do whatever she wished of him. "Power up." She said.

K197H's systems whirred to life and his eyes opened. "Hello, Violet." He said. The girl before him smiled. Her hair was tied up in a tight bun and she had a pair of tan pants on with a dark green shirt with the animal safe house logo printed on the front of it. 

"Hello to you too." She said. She looked at the manual in her hands. "Alright, who's orders do you follow?" Earlier this morning he would have said Lauren, but now his priorities were different. 

"You, ma'am." He replied. Another giddy smile. She walked away from him and handed the manual back to the truck driver.

"Alright, if i'm right if i have anymore questions, then he should be able to answer them." She said, signing the contract and handing it to the driver. He took it and left with a non. His case wheeled itself into the house that stood nearby. He watched it go.

After it was inside, he turned his attention back to Violet, who was staring at him. "Is there something wrong with my appearance?" He asked. She shook her head. 

"Nah, just trying to guess your shirt size so i can get you a shirt like mine. You work here now so you need one." He opened his mouth to tell her but she waved her hand dismissively. "No, don't tell me, i wanna guess." She smiled when she thought of an answer. She gestured for him to follow her into the house.

He followed a few feet behind her, looking around. The house on front of them was 3 stories and fairly large. It looked to be a very expensive and large house for just one person. His data said that Violet lived alone with a few workers that came to help with the animals every now and then.

When they stepped inside, he hadn't expected to see a snake on the light and a bird on the stair railing. "You have your animals in your home with you?" He asked. She nodded.

"Yup. Not all of them though, they wouldn't all fit. Just my select few favorite. I take care of these one's." Said Violet. She whistled and the bird flew over to her. "This is Nayla, my great green macaw." the bird copied her name with an off key singing note.

"Will i be assisting you?" K197H asked. 

"Sort of. I can take care of my house pets in here, but i have more animals out back. I need you to feed and water them and clean their enclosures. I would, but there's too many for me alone." She explained. He nodded.

"Would it be alright if i went to see what i'll be doing?" He asked. "I can start today, i just need to analyze what i'll be doing from now on.

"Yeah, sure, but first we gotta give you a name." Violet walked over to him and squinted. "Hmm, Kyle? No, to simple. I want something that starts with K to match your code." She said. "Tell you what, you go walk around and look at the animals and i'll think of a name for ya." 

"Yes ma'am." He said. Before he could start walking, she stopped him.

"You can just call me Violet, ma'am makes me sound old. Which i'm not." She said, and he made sure to remember that. While he was at it he connected to the internet here so he could research each of the animals he came across. "Be back in here in a few hours, about 3 i guess. I should have a shirt for you by then. And maybe something else too. White is not a good color on you at all."

He didn't understand how colors could look bad. K197H didn't dwell on it too long. He nodded and went to head outside. He easily found the back door, seeing various small animals like lizards and other snakes along with a weird looking rabbit. He didn't bother scanning them because he wouldn't have to worry about these ones. 

When e made it to the back yard, he saw why Violet needed a helping hand. There had to be at least 900 different enclosures, each one adjusted to the size of the creature housed within. Luckily for him the animals were sorted by habitat, starting with desert animals and ending with ocean animals.

He began to walk through the safe haven of various animals, taking time to scan each one and learn about it. There were scorpions, snakes, and even a weird looking beetle in the desert section. She even had a camel. Next was plains and fields. But i won't go into too much detail because my hands hurt from typing so i'm going to skip to the aquatic life.

Once to the water creature portion, it was about 2:00. There were hundreds of fish so he had to work quickly. After a few minutes he realized he could just scan the fish later and moved on to the next enclosure. This one had hippos. Hippo's were pretty cool.

There was a mother and a very young hippo in the enclosure, and both were swimming around happily. Nearby was an unhooked freezer full of various melons. He did a quick download and found out that apparently hippos absolutely love melons.

After his discovery, K197H headed back to the house. When he stepped inside, he found Violet waiting for him. She had an outfit folded neatly in her hands and a kind smile. He wondered if there was a time that she wasn't smiling.

"Alright, i hope i got the sizes right, but here you go. I put a name tag on the shirt so you can see it when you out it on." She explained, handing him the folded stack of cloth. "The bathroom is upstairs, first door to the right. And don't be alarmed if there's an iguana in the bathtub, that's where George like's to sleep." 

With a raised eyebrow, he took the clothes with a nod and headed upstairs. "I'll be back in just a minute." He said. He had to watch where he stepped after nearly stepping on chameleon on the stair however. Once upstairs he found the door and went into the bathroom. Before changing he checked the bathtub, and sure enough a really big, fat iguana was napping in the tub with a ball of lettuce in front of it.

He hoped that this wasn't the tub that Violet used because that was not sanitary at all. Tossing that though aside, he unfloded the plain blue jeans and bright green shirt. Violet seemed to like the color green. He changed out of his white Widget outfit and slipped into the new clothes. The fit fine, so he looked at the name tag.

In stitched white letters on the left part of the shirt, was the name Keith. She had decided to give him the name, Keith. Much easier to say than K197H.

Folding the white leotard, he headed back downstairs. The shirt he was given was a tee shirt, so his arms were exposed for the first time. He had lean muscles, but not overpowered looking. He looked like your average young adult who made sure to work out daily and eat healthy. However he did neither of those things.

"So, Keith. How do the clothed fit?" Violet asked. He changed his code name from 'Widget K197H' to 'Keith' so that way he would respond to that whenever someone said it.

"They fit well. Fortunately i don't grow so they sould fit me for a while." He said. Violet laughed. 

"So you make jokes. Nice." Keith was confused, he had only stated a fact. "Alright, so i was checking through your profile and your case came with personality drives." She explained.

"The drives come with different personalities that effect how i follow your orders and act around people. The orders will still be carried out, just on different way depending on the personality selected." Keith explained.

She held up a small computer chip. "I already picked on out to make you seem a bit more lively. Having a personality, weather it's fake or not, makes you seem a bit less dead inside." She said with a chuckle. Humans often gave their Widgets personalities so that way it was like working with another person and not a mindless robot.

"Which one have you selected?" He asked. She smirked.

"To make things interesting, i downloaded a custom personality so that way you act like one of my old friends from highschool. No clue where he is but yeah. great personality." She explained, handing him the chip. "I don't know how to insert it so i'll just let you do it."

He took the chip, making sure to run an antivirus through it just to be safe. Once cleared, he lifted the hair from the back of his neck and put the chip into a small slot hidden in his hairline.

He took a few seconds to let it download, and then he squinted. "You picked a hotheaded personality-" Keith said a bit of attitude to his voice. "Of all the other ones, you picked this one." His voice sounded just a tad different as well. Not as robotic and a bit more like a human voice.

Violet let loose a laugh and Keith rolled his eyes. This was gonna be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am trying to update both of my main stories at least twice a week.


	4. Feel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is Love?  
> Baby don't hurt me,  
> Don't hurt me, no more........

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY FOR THE LATE CHAPTER I ACCIDENTALLY UPLOADED THIS TOO YOUNG LIONS, WHOOPS  
> THANKS TO THE RANDOM DUDE WHO COMMENTED ON YOUNG LIONS TO LET ME KNOW I POSTED THE CHAPTER IN THE WRONG SPOT.

For the next few months, things went well for Keith. The animal safe house had become more of a rescue home for any animals, not just exotic ones. They now had dogs, cats, rats, and other animals like hedgehogs and guinea pigs. They even had 2 pot bellied pigs now. The idea had actually been Keiths. Violet had taken him on a road trip to pick up some more camel food, and they found an injured cat laying on the side of the road.

Using any of the data he had collected over the first few days of working with Violets animals, he managed to save the small grey and white kitten. Violet told Keith to give it a name, seeing as he was the one who saved it, but he didn't have a clue what to name the little fuzzball. After a 10 minute debate they settled on calling the kitten 'Frank'.

Later when they got home they found out that the kitten was a female, but the name stuck like glue. So they had a female kitten names Frank.

After the Frank incident, Violet said that she had realized what she was doing was good for animals, but it wasn't enough. So, Violet borrowed some money from her father, and built a whole new section to the wildlife preserve. The new section full of buildings were for abandoned pets or for pets that simply couldn't be kept by the owners.

Keith, of course, was the one to tend to the animals in that section. Violet had worked with animals longer, but Keith had access to the whole wide web for knowledge on animals. So he was able to identify what was wrong with the poor creatures that they took in. He even managed to save a dog that had lung failure. Violet said that it was just a cold, but Keith had figured out it was and infection not a cold.

But the addition to Violets business was not the only major change over the months. Keith himself had as well.

Widgets, machines, robots. They didn't have emotions. They couldn't. They could have fake personalities, but it was all an act. None of those reactions were induced by emotions. Merely programs.

So when Keith found himself becoming more attached to Violet than normal, he was confused. She was a good person, yes, but there was something else. He put effort into making her smile, into making sure she was happy. Widgets were only programmed to make sure that they followed orders, not to please their owners.

One time, Violet had caught something from one of the rescue dogs and fell ill. Keith had thrown himself into making sure she was well taken care of, that she didn't have to worry about the animals by taking care of all of them himself. Keith made sure to scan her every hour to ensure that she was getting healthier, and any time she wasn't, he tried anything he could to make her better. To bring that smile back.

And when she had gotten better, he had done something no Widgets should ever be able to do. He felt something.

After his chest filled with the unfamiliar sensation, Keith had thrown himself into research. Normally he would have results in seconds, but this took him days of grinding the internet and his personal data to find anything close. When he did find it, he was only more confused.

That sensation in his chest had been relief. But how? He wasn't supposed to feel. Is this what Lauren was talking about when they said he was special? That he was different? That he could feel?

By all laws of robotics, it was impossible. He didn't have a heart, or a brain, so how could he experience what only a living thing could? It was all just to confusing. The data couldn't compute, and he couldn't figure anything out.

So he simply went along with it. 'Relief' was supposedly a good thing, so he didn't feel the need to be alarmed or anything like that. If it was good, he let it happen.

That was his first mistake.

Over time, he began to feel more and more, experiencing things much further and stronger than relief. He felt.....happy. Content. When he was here with Violet and her animals, he didn't feel lonely anymore like he had when he was first made.

Violet. The girl that had made him her own. He felt something when he was around her and ONLY her. It was something that he could compare to happiness, but it felt much stronger.

He wanted to know what this feeling was, so one day, he decided to bring up his.......emotions, and tell her. Tell her what he thought he felt, and asked her if she knew.

That had been his second mistake.

"Violet?" He asked, walking over to her. The two were outside on the wooden deck, looking over the mass field full of animal enclosures and buildings. George, the iguana, was sitting perched on her shoulder with his tail hanging behind her. "I have a question for you." Keith said, stopping a few feet away from her.

"A question for me? Usually it's the other way around, mister know it all." She replied. "But yeah, sure. Ask away." Violet said, leaning on the railing in front of her. George climbed down her arm onto the railing and scurried off somewhere out of sight.

Keith moved to stand beside her, hands in the front pockets of his pants. "What..." He thought of how to word the question. "Have you ever seen someone, and had this urge to make sure that they were happy? Like it's the only thing that mattered?" He asked.

She turned to look at him suddenly. A puzzled look of confusion is her expression. "What do you mean?" Violet asked. The sun was almost to a setting point, so there were dark shadows cast across her face. Keith looked away from her and into the field.

"I don't know, that's what i'm trying to figure out. Like, feeling happy towards something or someone in specific." He said, seeing if that was worded better.

She turned away from him and shrugged. "Depends on what you mean by happy. I know you probably won't understand, but there's different kind of happy, different ways that it's felt, and different things it's felt for. Example, i feel happy towards my animals. I love them. They're my life. That's why i started this place. I wanted to make them feel as happy as i did." She explained.

"So, when you feel happy towards something, you love them?" He asked. Violet shrugged again.

"I guess so, most of the time anyways. Sometimes it's not love. It's like friends verses boyfriends or girlfriends. You like your friends, but you love your girlfriend or boyfriend. When you love someone, it feels like they were meant to be with you, like they complete you. Something like that anyways."

Was that what he felt for Violet? Love?

"Have you ever loved someone?" He asked. She let out a sigh.

"Yeah, at least i thought i did. A while ago, when i was still in high school, i dated someone named Rick. We hit it off really well at first. We would always go out, hang out with each other, we never got in fights, stuff like that. We were a perfect match for each other. I was crazy and energetic, and he was level headed quiet. I taught him how to live a little and have fun, while he taught me not to be completely reckless." She let out a dry chuckle.

"I guess i taught him to well. Our senior year, he changed. He started drinking, doing drugs, skipping school, and other things. He started to abuse me, hurt me. I tried to get him to snap out of it. But he never did. We broke up when graduation came around and i haven't seen him since then." She finished talking, and Keith saw a tear hit the wood of the deck beneath her.

"I thought we would be forever, but i guess i was wrong. So to answer your question, no. I haven't been in love. At least not real love." Violet said. She quickly wiped away any more tears that tried to fall.

"How can you tell if you're in love?" Keith questioned.

"Well, it can be instant or gradual. Mine was gradual and over time. When i met Rick, we were just friends. But as we got to know each other, we wanted to constantly be near each other. Like a drug, we were addicted to each other. We wanted to be near one another as much as possible because it hurt to be apart." She said.

That was the answer he was looking for. What she said, was when he had felt. The constant need to be with her. And the more time spent with her, the more he wanted when she was away.

"Do you think robots can fall in love?" He asked her, wanting her opinion before he told her how he felt.

"No." She answered bluntly. "Of course not, they aren't living. Only living things can feel." Violet explained. "You for example, if someone hit you, you wouldn't feel it, right?" She asked. He nodded. "Same thing with emotions. You can't get mad or anything like that."

He felt another sensation in his chest. It new one this time, but it didn't take him long to find out what it was. Doubt, hesitation, fear. If she says that robots can't feel, then what would she do when he told her that he could? Would she be scared? Humans feared things that were different. He knew that much. Or would she accept him? He wanted to know.

And if Widgets were good at anything, it was answering their questions.

"I.......i have something iv'e been meaning to tell you." He said, looking her in the eyes. She looked right back at him. "The past few months, you have..........well, we, we have accomplished a lot. Things are good. Things are great. But there's something else."

"What else is there?" She asked, standing up straight and facing him. He turned to face her as well. They stood only a few feet apart from each other, just watching the one in front of them.

"Well, there's you. And me. Violet, i think......i....." He struggled to say the words. "Based off of what you just told me, i'm pretty sure...." Why couldn't he just say it? Why wouldn't his mouth form words?

He let out a breathe he didn't need. "Violet, i think i'm in love with you." He managed to say quietly, looking right into her eyes.

Violet froze, suddenly gone stiff. She said nothing. Keith felt the fear creep back into his systems and they stood there in utter silence as the sun set behind them. So he continued to speak.

"At first, i wasn't sure if i was or not. According to everything i know, it shouldn't be possible. I'm not supposed to feel. But these past few months, iv'e fallen for you. I feel things when i'm around you. I want to make sure that you're happy all the time. I care about you. I......" He paused again. "I love you." Keith finished.

Violet still hadn't said anything. Her eyes were wide, and Keith couldn't tell if it was our of fear, shock, surprise, anything. He didn't know. He wanted to know.

"Please say something...." He said in almost a whisper. The fear had stolen his voice away and left a rasp instead. But it did the trick and snapped her back to reality.

"What." Was the word she had picked to start with. "That's....that's impossible. You can't feel, you're a machine." She said coldly with an angered look of fear on her face. She wasn't happy, and Keith ached. "You aren't human. You may look human but you aren't!"

Keith's eyes widened, and he reached towards her to rest his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. It worked every other time she was distraught.

His third mistake.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled suddenly, breaking the silent atmosphere and causing Keith to flinch. She was unhappy. He had made her unhappy. This was his fault. He should have kept his mouth shut. "Just........don't touch me." She backed further away. "You're broken. You have a malfunction or something." She said, avoiding looking at him. "You're a machine, you shouldn't be acting like this."

"Violet, i'm....i'm not acting. That how iv'e been feeling, that's how i feel. I know shouldn't be able to, but i do. Please believe me!" His voice cracked and he started to wonder if he really was broken.

"Get out."

Keith look up at her with wide eyes. "What?" He asked. He had heard her, but he was confused.

"I said get out! And don't try to come back. You're broken and i will not take any risks with you." She glared right at him. "Get.....out."

Suddenly he was moving on his own, towards her. "Please don't..."He said. "Like you said earlier, it hurts when i'm away from you...." Every step he took closer, she stepped back, anger dropping away lake broken ice and felting into cold fear. After a few steps, he had backed her against the railing, a sad, almost desperate look in his eyes that he didn't even know he could do.

He reached up to gently caress her face. "Please-" And without warning, Violet hit him. She slapped him. And Keith FELT it. He felt the sting on his face, the shock in his chest, and he felt himself fill with sadness that hurt. He took a step back and touched where he had been hit. It definitely hurt.

"I said get out!" Violet yelled.

So he did. He left, and never turned back.


	5. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I bring you what you have all been asking for. LANCE.

The past week had been a blur for Keith. He didn't have a set destination in mind, so when he ran out of violets property, he was lost. He knew where he was but not where he was going. So he walked. And he didn't stop. 

The animal shelter was far from the city area, so he had walked for about 3 days without seeing anything other than the occasional house or farm. There were a lot of tree's as well. Keith supposed the reason for everything being blurred was the fact that it all looked the same. Tree's, more tree's, a house, more and more tree's.

On the fourth day of his week long walk he had stumbled into a small town. It was only then that he realized that he was running low on power. Normally he would be able to charge himself, but since he hadn't stopped moving long enough to recycle the energy, he would have to do it manually.

Unfortunately for him, luck was against him. He had left his charger cord back at Violets house. Keith felt like an idiot for not thinking of that sooner. He would just have to make due.

So he wandered around the small town, looking for a place that he could get power. By the time night fell he found an old gas station that had been out of business for a few years at least. Making sure no one was wandering around, Keith jogged over to the run down building and looked for a fuse box or something similar.

When he found one on the back side of the building, he felt a bit of relief when he noticed the little red light was still on. The building still had electricity. A small beeping in his system informed him that he would need to hurry. All his non essential programs had already shut down to save battery power.

Keith easily pried the metal cover from the fuse box, and got to work on pulling out certain wires. When he found the right ones, he reach behind him and under the hairline on his neck. With a sharp tug he pulled out on of his own wires. With steady hands, Keith pulled the outer layer of his wire off and twisted it with the one from the fuse box. 

The beeping noise stopped, and he was charging. Lesson learned, grab your charger before running off.

The rest of the week continued about the same, only there was less tree's and more buildings. It had rained a few times, and Keiths only pair of clothes had mud splotches on them. He had left only wearing simple jeans and a t shirt along with a pair of plain black shoes.

Towards the end of the week he decided it would be a good idea to get a change of clothes before he walked all they way into the city. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he sould go there. It would also be a lot easier to find power sources there.

So by Saturday, Keith was aimlessly wandering around the late night streets of a quiet city. It was pouring heavy rain , making it difficult to see. There was almost no traffic in the flooded streets as Keith walked with his head hung low. There was nobody walking or running, most of the shops he passed by were closed, and there was no one in sight.

So it was rather surprising when he saw someone run around the corner and nearly collide right into his chest. He had moved to the side and the person went flying passed him.

When the person had passed him, they stopped and turned around to face him. A face covered with a mop of soaked brown hair turned to face him. Keith froze for a moment when he locked eyes with the stranger. He had deep blue eyes and tanned skin. He wore only a simple blue and white tee shirt and black pants and he held a flashlight in his hands. The shirt was thoroughly soaked and the male appeared to be very distressed.

"Thank quiznak!" The male blurted. "Hi, the name's Lance, and i need your help with something!" He said. Suddenly Lance grabbed Keiths hand and started running in the direction he had come from.

"Wait, what? Help with what?!" He asked, confused as he was dragged down the sidewalk by the stranger named Lance. "Where are we going!?" 

"Iv'e been running around trying to find someone to help me get a dog out of a sewage drain!" He yelled as he ran. "You're the first person iv'e seen so far." He said.

Ironically Keith was far from a person, but hey it works. But it's not like he had anything better to do, so he let himself be pulled along by this blue eyed stranger.

Soon the two arrived to a large expanse of water behind a large building that was under construction. Lance shined his light towards the middle of the water and sure enough, there was a golden yellow dog with muddy fur stuck to the grate of a large drain that was filling with water. Only the dogs head could be seen above the muddy liquid.

Keith could see where Lance needed help. Someone had to jump in and grab the dog with their hands. That part seemed easy enough, but it would be hard to climb back out with a handful of dog. The dog was fully grown too, so it would need to be held with both arms.

"Alright, i need you to lower me down into the water, i'll grab the dog, and then you pull us both out. Got it?" Lance explained quickly, already leaning over the edge of the water.

"No, let me. I'm lighter so it'll be easier for you to pull me out." He said. That and hypothermia was a possibility for a human, but Keith was a widget so temperature and water had almost no effect on him.

"You sure?" Lance asked. Keith nodded and swapped spots with him and gave him the flashlight. He held up his hand and Lance grasped onto it firmly. Keith immediately noticed the warmth coming from the males hand. Which was surprising considering the guy had to have been standing in the rain for at least an hour. 

"Alright, lower me." Keith said. Lance nodded and helped Keith down to where the water was. Once his waist was in the water, Lance released his hand. Keith dropped down another foot and the water reached up to his armpits. He stuck the flashlight in his mouth so he could use his hands. The current from the flood water was almost enough to sweep Keith right away, but he was stronger than that and refused to let the water take him.

The black haired Widget waded his way over to where the poor dog was stuck, and when he got there, he almost got sucked under. Making sure he didn't step directly on the grate, Keith leaned over and grabbed the dog by the scruff of it's neck. Once his grip was tight, he started to wade back to the edge where Lance waited. 

Lance had a look of nervousness, panic, and concern on his face. Keith wasn't sure if it was directed to him or the dog. 

Soon he made it over to where he had climbed in. With a heave, he hoisted the exhausted dog onto his shoulders so he could use both of his hands. He reached up and Lance met him halfway, grabbing his hands and hoisting them up with surprising strength.

Once back on solid ground, Keith tipped forward and let the dog slide off of his shoulders and onto the ground. Turns out it was a female Labrador. Good news, she was alive and breathing. Bad news, she was cold and tired.

"Thank you so much for your help, i was about to jump in there on my own to get her before i ran into you." Lance said, petting the soaked dog with a relieved smile. "Oh, i never got your name!" He said, looking up to Keith.

"Uhm, Keith. My name's Keith." He said. Lance nodded. 

"Alright, well, thank you Keith! I'm going to take this little girl home and get her dried up." Lance said. He stood up, taking the dog with him. He carried the dog like an overgrown baby over his shoulder. The dog seemed to like the spot so Keith didn't question it. "You were probably doing something before i ran into you, sorry about inconveniencing you." He apologized.

Keith merely waved it off. "No, it's fine. I didn't have anywhere to be." He said. Lance looked confused for a moment, though his face was hard to read in the dim city lights.

"Then why are you walking around in the middle of the night while it's raining?" The taller male asked, still holding the dog.

"I...i don't really know. I don't exactly have anywhere to be or go." He said after a moment. It wasn't a lie. He had nowhere to go and didn't have to be anywhere. 

"Wait, you're homeless?" Lance asked, a frown forming on his face. After looking up quick definition, he realized that his situation matched. Keith was homeless in this moment. "Well, in that case, follow me!" Lance said, a bit enthusiastically. Without explanation or anything at all, Lance turned and started walking.

"Wait, why?" Keith asked, hurrying to follow him. 'Follow me' was technically a direct order so he had to comply either way. "Where are we going?" He asked as they walked through the heavy rain.

"Well, you helped me, and now i'm returning the favor. I have a guest bedroom at my place you can use for tonight." Lance said. 

"Wait, what?" Keith asked. "That's nice of you, really, but i can't accept. You just met me!" He said. Lance ignored him and kept walking. Soon they had made it a parking garage that was safe from the rain.

"So? You seem like a nice guy, and you don't have anywhere else to be. You said so yourself." Lance said, turning to face him and putting the dog down. The gold furred dog shook the water free from it's fur with a look of happy on its face.

"You do have a point, but i don't want to intrude." Keith argued. He wondered if there was something wrong with this guy. Inviting strangers into your home was usually a bad idea. 

"You wouldn't be intruding. Like i said, you helped me, you have nowhere else to be, and you helped me save my friends dog." He said.

"Wait, she's not your dog?" Keith asked. He looked down the golden lab who was sitting there with her tongue hanging out lazily. She looked up at Keith and barked.

"Nah, i'm more of a cat person. This girl here, Rover, belongs to my friend Pidge!" He said, petting the dog. "Now, my car is right over there, so let's get to my house, get some dry clothes and call it a night, ok?" Lance asked.

After a moment, Keith nodded reluctantly. "Alright, fine. But just for tonight." He said. Lance smiled kindly and started walking again. Rover followed close to his side as they walked, with Keith right behind them.

After a a moment of quiet walking, they reached a pickup truck with a deep blue coat of fresh paint on it. The license plate read 'Blulion' on it and Keith raised an eyebrow. He didn't ask about it though as he hopped into the passenger seat. The truck looked like it was kept clean on a daily basis, which meant Lance probably took care of the truck like it was his favorite thing.

Suddenly his vision was obscured by fur as Rover hopped into his lap and sat down right on his thighs. He could hear Lance laughed as he hopped into the driver seat. "Come on rove, there's a backseat!" Lance said, trying to come to Keiths rescue, the dog only ignored him and rested her head on Keiths shoulder. She seemed content on staying there.

'This is fine' Keith thought to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait for Lance to show up!  
> I really wanted to put a lot of time into Keiths backstory before he meets Lance. It has a lot to do with the plans i have for this story so the wait was necessary.


	6. Home Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn a bit about Lance!

The two sat in the truck in silence for majority of the ride. The rain kept them far from silence but that lack of chat seemed to dull out the ride. Rover had stayed in Keiths lap for the whole ride though. She seemed to like him. Keith faintly wondered if animals could tell that he wasn't a real human.

If Rover did know, she didn't make it obvious. The dog just seemed happy with sitting on him and licking his face every now and then. Keith didn't really mind the attention from this weird animal, seeing as he knew it meant the dog liked him.

Soon the trio arrived to their destination and they all hopped out of the truck. Looking around, Keith realized they were on the less populated outskirts of the large city. The buildings here were a bit shorter and had more space between them. "Over here!" Lance hollered. Rover followed Lance and Keith followed Rover through the pouring rain.

They ran up to a light blue house that seemed a bit out of place against the city buildings the bright lights. It was a decent sized two story house that looked rather cozy and inviting from the cold rain. The cold didn't effect Keith, but he wanted to get out of the rain.

Lance pulled a mass of keys from his pocket to unlock the door, and Keith wondered what the heck Lance would need that many keys for. The brunette took a moment to find the right key, and swung the door open. Rover ran inside, trailing mud with her as she raced passed Lance.

Keith walked in behind Lance and quickly closed the door to keep the cold air and rain out. Lance peeled out of his wet shoes and jacket before rushing off to find towels. Rover ran around, leaving mud tracks everywhere along with random puddles. When Lance returned he shrieked and chased Rover around.

Keith felt another feeling in his chest. It was similar to joy, but not quite. The scene, it humored him. It was funny, in a way. So he let himself laugh. He had never laughed before so he was shocked when he heard himself laugh. He kind of liked it. It felt good to laugh. And Lance had made him laugh.

Soon he stepped in and helped Lance catch the crazy dog. It took a few minutes but Keith managed to get his arms around the sopping mop of fur. While Keith held on, Lance grabbed a towel and pat down the dog, wringing out her fur. "This is why i told Pidge to get her a leash, this dog lives to cause chaos i swear-" Lance stated with a laugh of his own. 

Keith liked Lance's laugh more than his own.

Once the dog was dry, she was released to roam the house. Lance let out a sigh and handed Keith one of the many towels. "I'll get you something dry to wear. My clothes might be a bit big on you but hey, it works i guess." The brunette said before speeding off down the hallway. Keith watched him run off through the house.

After he realized he was staring, he returned to the room where the front door was, which he assumed was the living room. Once there he stayed by the door so he wouldn't get any more water throughout the house. He dried off the best he could before dropping the towel on the floor and cleaning up some of the puddles.

He was a guest here, so he wanted to be nice after all. So in return for some shelter from the rain, he would clean up the rains mess. Rover, now dry, was lazily flopped on the couch, taking a well deserved nap. Keith remembered one time back at Violets place when they had saved a dog from floodwaters once before. It was a smaller dog so it had been harder to catch.

Lance returned moments later with some sweatpants, a t shirt and clean underwear. "The bathroom is down that hall to the left-" He said, pointing down the hallway that they had caught Rover in. "And while you're in there i'll make some hot coffee for us." He said with a welcoming smile. Keith nodded and took the clothes.

"I'm not much of a coffee drinker." He said. Keith wasn't an anything drinker if he was being honest. He still wasn't sure why he hadn't told this guy that he was a Widget. 

"Oh, um, hot coco then?" Lance asked. Keith, not wanting to seem rude, nodded to that. He could eat and drink, but it didn't benefit him in any way. "Alright! Feel free to take a shower if you want." he added before walking to the kitchen. 

Keith glanced over to Rover, and he could have swore that the dog winked at him. But when he looked again to check, the dog was asleep. So without anymore thoughts, he made his way to the bathroom. 

Once there he shut the door behind him and looked in the mirror that hung above the sink. He was a mess. His hair was a wet rats nest, he had dirt and scratches across. Good news, he was a robot so he didn't have body odor and he didn't have bags under his eyes from walking for a week straight.

Unfortunately, he did smell from the drain that Rover had been stuck in. God knows what was in that water. So he opted to take a shower anyways. He stripped out of his wet clothes and draped them over the edge of the laundry basket that stood by the toilet. Keith then stepped into the small shower and turned on the hot water. Since temperature wasn't an issue, he did't care hot hot or cold the water was.

He started with his hair and then washed the rest of his body once the mop on his head was clean. He had showered before at Violets house when he fell into the hippo pen while cleaning. Despite not being able to smell, Keith knew he stank for a week because even the other animals ran when he got near them. 

After that he always asked Violet to make sure he didn't smell.

He missed her.

Keith had never really missed anyone before, so he wasn't sure why he missed her. She had rejected him, turned him down, and kicked him out. He found it odd how she simply tossed a multi billion machine like him right into the streets. She could have at least returned him so he wasn't in some strangers house. 

But, he liked this stranger. He was a nice guy. Lance cared about saving that dog even though it was dangerous to do so, and he let a total stranger into his home simply because said stranger didn't have one. No normal person would do that, would they?

Keith decided not to think to much into it because the more questions he asked it only made him more confused. He didn't know what he was doing, why he was here, and why anything like this was happening.

He should have just kept his mouth shut instead of admitting his 'feelings' to Violet. Having emotions sucked.

But at the same time they didn't? Laughter was ok, so was being happy in general. Feeling sad was a bummer, but love? Love hurt. Like a rose. You pick it, expecting a beautiful prize to yourself, only for it to bite and make you bleed. And you didn't stop bleeding for the rest of your life.

Deciding that his shower thoughts were getting to dark, Keith turned off the warm water and stepped out of the shower. Grabbing a towel from a nearby shelf, he dried his hair and body before tossing on the clean clothes Lance had given him. He was right about the clothes being a bit big. Lance had longer legs than he did so the legs went passed his feet and dragged on the floor.

With a sigh he hiked them up as high as they could go and rolled up the bottom of the pant legs. One that was taken care of he did his best to fix his jet black, now clean smelling hair without using a brush. He was a guest, not a close friend. So he didn't want to use anything he shouldn't. 

Keith left the bathroom, turning off the light and tossing the towel into the laundry basket. After that was taken care of, he walked towards the kitchen where he could hear Lance humming along to a song that sounded like Shakira. Walking into the tile floored room, his eyes widened.

He was dancing around the kitchen while making their drinks. Keith would be lying if he said he didn't stare for at least a full minute before stepping in and saying something. "Um, i just wanted to let you know i put my clothes in the baske- what the heck is on your face?"

Lance had turned to look at him, but his face had some weird green stuff on it. "Oh! Sorry about this-" He said, gesturing to the green stuff. "I have a nightly skin care routine." Lance stated. Keith nodded.

"Uh huh." The coffee machine let out a beep and Lance turned back around to pour himself a cup. When his was done, the coco finished shortly after, so he got Keiths cup as well. Taking his coffee in one hand, he used his free hand to off Keiths to him.

"Thanks." He said, taking the cup of the warm liquid. "So, what exactly does your face mask do?" He asked curiously. Lance walked into the living room and Keith followed. 

"It puts nutrients and stuff in my pores so dirt and other tings don't get in there instead. It also smells nice so that's a bonus." He explained. "I have several different kinds, so it depends on what mood i'm in to which one i put on." He said. Keith wasn't really that interested in the subject, but he listened anyways.

"So, how'd you end up, y'know, homeless?" Lance suddenly asked, grabbing Keiths attention. "I mean it's totally cool if you don't want to tell me, but i figured i'd ask." He said.

"Well, there's not much to it. I got kicked out by the girl i lived with. Last week actually. Iv'e just been wandering around since." Keith replied. He saw Lance's kind smile drop.

"Oh, man, buddy, that's rough." He said. "Do you mind me asking what happened exactly?"

To be honest he really didn't mind, so he answered. "The girl i lived with, i worked for her at an animal shelter and preserve. I worked there for a few months before realizing that i liked her. A lot. So one day i confessed and she turned me away, kicked me out." Keith said. It wasn't a lie, but he never said why she had rejected him.

"Ouch. Sounds like it sucked. And you've been on your own for a week?" He asked. Keith nodded. "Damn. It's a good thing i ran into you then." The brunette said before taking a sip from his coffee. Keith realized he had yet to even touch his drink so he quickly took a small drink so it wouldn't go to waste.

"Yeah it does suck...." He said. It hurt when she had yelled at him. "Thank you for letting me stay here for tonight. You didn't have too." Keith stated, looking up at Lance. He had sat down on the couch and Rover draped herself over Lance's lap. Keith took a seat on a nearby chair and leaned back a bit.

"Don't worry about it too much. Heck after hearing about what your girl did to you, i might just let you stay until you can get on your own two feet!" Lance said with a smile.

"Wait, you're serious?" Keith asked, sitting back up straight. Lance nodded. 

"I know how it feels to get denied by someone you have feelings for. Happened to me right when i got out of highschool. A girl named Nyma had been with me for two years, and when i graduated she left me for some jock named Rolo. Who the heck names their kid Rolo?" Lance asked with a small cringe. Keith chuckled.

"I have no idea, but if you're serous about me staying here until i can get my own place......" He sighed. "I can't say yes. You just met me for one, for two that's just too much." Keith said.

"I insist. And we have common ground so i know what you're going through. That and i could use the company. It gets a bit lonely here since all of my friends have jobs."

Keith gave up, he couldn't say no to a kindness like Lance's. It was too genuine to turn down. "Ok, i'll stay. But ONLY until i can take care of myself, ok?" Keith asked. Lance nodded. "Also, i have to asked, where do you work?'

"Oh yeah! I work at a zoo."


	7. Among The Beasts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rover is returned her mum!  
> Also Keith is starting to think Lance is crazy.

"A zoo?" Keith asked, as if he had heard the person in front of him wrong. "You work.....at a zoo?" He repeated. Lance nodded with a huge smile, an excited look in his eyes.

"Yup! I work here with my friends during the week except for Sundays, and the business is great. I'll have to show you the animals tomorrow." The brunette explained. "I would show you know but i already closed up for the night and the animals are all in the pens because of the rain." Lance stated, scratching the back of his head. 

Keith nodded and sipped the hot cocoa that Lance had given him. "That's cool." He stated. The Widget remembered all of the animals at Violets reserve, and how it was like a zoo, just more private. A lot of things reminded him if Violet lately. It hurt a bit to think about her. "What kind of animals do you have?" He asked, trying to stop thinking of the 'bad' memories.

"Well, we have basic zoo animals. Zebra's, giraffes, hippo's stuff like that, we have 2 tigers." he said with a smile. "There's a macaw named Harold that roams around the zoo on his own. He has a cage but he never uses it. At night he just vanishes and during the day he likes to ride on kids heads for fun." 

The Widget let out a small chuckle. He didn't think letting an exotic bird roam free was the best idea, but it wasn't his place to judge how Lance ran this place. "So, so you own the zoo? or do you just work here?" He asked.

"I own the zoo, but my friends run it with me. I just happen to have my name on the paperwork." Lance shrugged casually and took a drink from his coffee. "We decided to each take different sections. I cover the aquatic animals and reptiles, Hunk works with mammels, Pidge with amphibians, Shiro with rodents and therapy animals, Coran with insects, and Allura with birds." He rambled on about the sections and their caretakers.

"The cool part though, is that we have five lions. Three males and two females. We named them after colors because why the heck not. But the REALLY cool part, is they're all trained for show." He said with a growing smirk. 

Keiths eyes widened. "Show? As in, tricks and such?" He asked. Lance nodded at him.

"Monday you can watch the show if you want. We do it at noon everyday. Except for Sundays obviously.." He said, finishing his coffee with a sigh. "Well, it's late, and i have to be up early. It's Sunday tomorrow, but the animals still gotta eat." Lance said with a chuckle. He stood up, taking Rover with him in his arms. "The guest room is upstairs, first door to the left." The taller male said before walking upstairs. "Goodnight!" 

Keith waved at him. "Goodnight." He replied. The robot stood and quickly finished his cocoa before taking care of his and Lance's forgotten cup and putting them in the sink. He turned the lights off and headed up to the room.

Luckily his battery was fully charged still, so he didn't need to hijack an outlet for power. So when he got into the room, he just sat on the bed with an un-needed sigh. Today was a good day, he guessed. He wasn't in the rain anymore, and he had made a friend, so that was cool.

But one question drifted around in his database. Why hadn't he told Lance that he was a Widget? That should have been the first thing out of his mouth, so why didn't he? Was it because of how Violet had reacted to him? 

Was he scared of being thrown out again?

No, he was a machine, i was impossible for him to be scared of something. Right? He didn't know. Keith didn't even know what fear was and he hoped that he never found out.

Small tapping noises raced down the hall and towards his door, and suddenly Rover was pushing her way through the door and hopping onto the bed next to Keith. With a smile he pet the dog gently. She seemed much better than she had earlier, so that was good. The poor girl was still tired, but happy.

"Well, i'm guessing you came in here to sleep, so i won't keep you up." Keith stated, ruffling her fur. She borked happily at him. The violet eyed Widget stood and turned the light off before flopping onto the bed. Rover instantly laid claim to him as a bed by laying right across his chest, using his shoulder as a pillow.

"Goodnight Rover." He said. Keith always told the animals goodnight. They deserved to have a good night as much as any living creature did.

\---The next morning---

Widgets didn't sleep like people did, but they did have a rest mode that conserved power while they weren't moving, so Keith guess that was his version of 'sleep'. Rover on the other hand, slept like the dead. She stayed asleep all the way until the sun rose in the morning. And when the sun rose, so did Lance.

The soft knocking on the bedroom door pulled Keith out of his resting state and he sat up. Rover hopped off of his chest and ran to greet Lance with a few happy licks to his face. Keith sat up with a faked yawn.

"Good morning! Did you sleep ok?" Lance asked with a cheery smile, and Keith wondered yet again if this guys ever stopped smiling.

"Yeah, the bed was comfy, and Rover makes a pretty good blanket." He commented. The small joke was enough to pull a giggle from Lance, and it made him smile.

"True, very true. And speaking of Rover, i was going to give her back to Pidge at work today. And speaking of work, i wanted to know if you'd like to tag along so i can show you the animals." The tall brunette offered. And Keith nodded without knowing why.

"Sure. Might as well." He stood up from the bed and the trio of dog, man, and machine walked down to the kitchen. Once there, Lance fed Rover and got a pot of coffee ready.

"I'll be back in a sec-." And without explanation, Lance vanished down the hall. He returned later with Keiths original clothes, cleaned and dried. "Here ya go! I got them washed before i woke you up so you could wear something that fits you." He said with a kind smile as he handed them to Keith.

Keith wasn't sure how to react. That was nice of him. Back at Violets he was the one doing the laundry and stuff like that. It wasn;t until now that he realized just how much he was doing for Violet and getting next to nothing in return. But here was Lance, doing things for him despite him not even asking. So he thanked him. 

"Thanks, you didn't have too." He stated. Lance merely waved it off/

"Don't worry about it, it's the least i could do. Now, i have to go soon so if you want to come you gotta hurry." He turned to Rover. "Hey Rover, wanna see Pidge?" He asked. AT the sound of her owners name, Rover borked happily and practically flew to Lance's truck.

Keith chuckled and went to change. After he finished, he jogged out to the truck where Lance and Rover were waiting patiently for him. Keith hopped into the truck after dodging puddle from last night, and Rover took her seat on his lap again.

The drive after that only took a few minutes, because the house was on the zoo property, so they got there quickly. The sun was all the way up by now and casting a rose gold glow over the area.

Keith hopped out of the car with Rover and looked at the zoo in front of him. The sign was hung on a huge arch over old wooden gates made from oak logs. It said 'Castle of Lions: City Zoo' in shimmering white letters with five different colored lions made of swirls and tribal patterns floating around the cursive words. 

Lance lead him through the massive gates and into wonderland itself. All of the enclosures had a rustic feel to it, fancy wooden fence's decorated with fairy lights and vines, giving the whole place a fantasy feel too it.

"It's beautiful..." Keith said, barley above a whisper. He took a few photos and saved them to his hard drive for later.

"Rover you're ok!" A female voice said from his left. Keith turned to see a girl in a green t shirt and dark grey knee length shorts. Her hair was sticking up in several places and she had large rounded glasses on her freckled face. Keith guessed this was Pidge.

Rover barked and whimpered happily before racing over and tackling the poor girl to the ground. The dog was just was big as she was so in second, only her feet and arms could be seen as the dog mauled her with kisses and drool.

Lance stood beside Keith and laughed. "Every time-" he stated. Lance then hurried over to help Pidge off of the ground. Keith followed, guessing he should introduce himself. When he got a closer look, something clicked. She looked familiar. He didn't know anyone named Pidge though, so it was weird.

Eventually Rover got off of the small girl and she jumped up, brushing the dirt from her clothes. "Where did you find her!?" She said, looking at Lance.

"I got your text saying that she got loose so i went around town to look for her. I found her in a sewage pit and Keith here helped me get her out." He explained. Pidge looked to Keith and held out her hand.

"I'm Pidge, nice to meet you!" She said with a smile. Keith took her hand with a smile of his own and shook it. Rover saw this as a game and jumped on their clasped hands with a bark. They broke apart, startled at first, but then all three of them laughed. "Anyhow, thanks for helping Lance get Rover back." Pidge said.

"No problem." He replied.

"So what brings you to the zoo on a Sunday?" Pidge asked as Rover stood on her hind legs to lick at Pidge's face. "Not many people are allowed in here unless Lance says otherwise."

Lance shrugged. "He helped save your dog, so i figured i'd give him a tour of the place." He stated simply. Pidge nodded as if saying fair enough to the reasoning.

"Well, i'm going to guess you told him about the lion?" She asked. Lance nodded. "Well don't keep him waiting, they really are something special. Just don't mess up green's fur! I just groomed her half an hour ago!" Pidge scolded. Lance firmly nodded to that statement.

"Alright, tell the others i brought a friend ok?" He asked, and Pidge gave him a thumbs up before walking away with Rover by her side. "Now follow me!" Lance announced before walking. Keith hurried to follow him since it was a direct order. The two walked through the zoo, walking at a pace that let Keith admire the exhibits.

Soon they made it to a massive pit in the dead center of the zoo. In the bit, there were the five lions lazing around in the massive enclosure. The walls of the pit were smooth cement about 15 feet high so the lions wouldn't get loose, but it didn't look like they seemed interested in trying to get out. They mostly focused on napping.

"Meet the five lions!" Lance announced proudly. "That one is green," He said, pointing to the smallest lion that had a small tear in her ear. "The one over there is yellow." Yellow was the second largest of the pride, and had a very fluffy mane. "Red." Keith followed where Lance was pointing to find a lion a bit larger than green and male, but had a similar build. That one looked kind of mean. "Black is the leader back there."

Black sat proudly on a rock, sunbathing while watching his pride. "And blue, my beautiful baby girl, is the one sitting in the water." Lance stated. Keith looked over and sure enough, there was a female lion sitting in the shallow end of the water pool, grooming herself. "But that's not the best part. Wanna see something cool?" He asked. Keith nodded. Why the heck not?

Lance told Keith to stay put before running out of sight. He appeared moments later, in the lion pen with a huge grin on his face.


	8. Animalistic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is your extra long chapter to make up for last week! Also, new friends!

Now, even though Widget's were built to have no emotions, Keith felt a surge of concern when Lance decided to hop right into a pen full of lions. He had his suspicions, but now he knew this guy was definitely crazy.

"What are you doing?" Keith asked. The brunette only smiled and he walked to the center of the enclosure. Black was looking at him, but made no threatening moves or even bothered to move at all. 

"Watch this~" Lance said with a devilish smirk. "Hey Blue!" He hollered to the sleek furred lion sitting in the water. "Come here beautiful!"

The lion perked up at his voice, ears and eyes locked onto the boy. As if on fire, the lion hopped from the pool and bounded towards him. Keith's eyes widened, thinking that the feline was going to attack him. But instead, Blue jumped up and tackled Lance to the ground before licking at the mop of brown hair on his head.

That was not what he had been expecting. Keith watched with wide eyes as the lion loved on Lance happily. It was....odd, to be honest. He knew lions could be friendly, but he didn't know they could be THAT friendly and know what their own name was. Cats were cool, but they didn't really listen to anyone. 

"Did you train them to do that?" He asked curiously. Lance shook his head.

"Nah, they're nice on their own. We taught them tricks for out Saturday shows, but other than that, nope." He replied. Lance pet Blue happily as the lion laid on top of his, grooming him to the best of her ability. The lions tail flopped lazily as she let out a deep rumble that Keith guessed was a purr. "Yeah that's right you know who your mother is-" Lance cooed in a girly voice.

Keith raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. "I'm going to take an educated guess and say that you raised Blue yourself and the others raised Black Red Green and Yellow?" He asked. Lance nodded, wiggling out from under Blue. She purred and rubbed up against his legs happily.

"Kind of. Shiro raised black and Red, Pidge with Green, and Hunk with Yellow. We were going to let Allura raise Red, but Red didn't like that idea and actually ended up attacking Allura. She's fine though so that's good." He stated.

The Widget looked over to Red, who was sitting near Black, but more hidden in the shadows. She did look kind of mean, but i guess every rose has it's thorns. Only this time it was claws, not thorns. And a lot of teeth.

"Make's sense i guess. Pack animals tend to want to stick with the leader." Keith commented, nodding towards Black. He could practically feel the strength of that lion just by looking at him.

"So, you know about animals eh?" Lance asked. Keith nodded.

"I used to work at an animal rescue center and preserve with.....you know.....her." He stated. The robot didn't even want to say her name anymore. It hurt too much. He still missed her.

"Oh, sorry, forgot about that-" Lance said with a slight cringe. "Well, exactly how much DO you know about animals?" He asked. "Because i might have an idea."

"Uhm, a lot i guess? Ask me about an animal or something." The violet eyed widget replied. Lance nodded.

"Alright, what do sugar gliders eat?" He asked with a small smile. Keith knew the answer immediately.

"Tame gliders typically eat applesauce, yogurt, fruits and sometimes eggshells." He answered. Lance seemed surprised that he had answered so quickly, and accurately. Keith felt a small swell of pride in his chest as he smiled a bit. He had impressed Lance.

"Ok lucky guess. Now, how many tigers are there left in the wild?" He questioned, crossing his arms with a sly grin.

"3,200."

"What's the scientific name for an elephant?"

"Loxodonta."

"How man toes does a sloth have?"

"Three."

"What's the worlds largest breed of parrot?"

"Kakapo. They're also flightless. Are we done yet?"

"Nope, not yet. Also i ask the questions. Where do penguins live?"

He sighed. "They live in Antarctica." Keith shook his head. "Ok, i'm done-" He stated, causing Lance to laugh. By now blue had gotten bored and walked back over to the pool of water before laying down and grooming herself. Lance fixed his 'groomed' hair and hurried out of the enclosure to stand back by Keiths side, outside of the lion pen.

"Ok, so you're good with animals. Just what i had hoped. Now, i have work to do, feeding the animals and such. Wanna tag along and watch?" Lance asked. "You can help too if you want." He offered. "It'll be fun~"

The look in Lance's eyes dared Keith to say yes, so he did. The widget gave him a firm nod. "Sure, don't see why not. Let me know if i'm in the way of anything though." He informed. Lance nodded. He started walking, waving for Keith to follow. Lance worked with the aquatic life and reptiles so they would head there. 

"When i finish taking care of my work i can show you the rest of the zoo if you'd like. Maybe we can catch Shiro before he's done with the rodents and therapy animals." Lance said as they walked.

"What exactly do you mean by therapy animals?" Keith asked.

"Well, we have common household pets with disabilities. Shiro lost his arm when he was in the marines, so he started a program to help with kids and other veterans. We have a few blind dogs, a cat that doesn't have it's front legs, a few birds that can't fly and a few others with damaged beaks. And we also have a squirrel who can't walk straight. Don't ask about the squirrel." He explained.

Keith really wanted to ask about the squirrel. But since Lance had said not to, he couldn't. Maybe he could ask Shiro if they did end up seeing him later. For now though, he would wait. "So, do you rescue the animals or do people bring the to you?" He asked instead. By now they reached a building with a sign that read 'Reptile house' on the front of it. Lance and Keith walked around to the back where there were multiple boxes of various insects like crickets and meal worms. 

"Well, " He started as he grabbed a bucket and filled it with crickets. "Both. Shiro goes to pet shelters that have a time limit of the animals, and adopts them until he can find home for them. The one's with disabilities, he keeps for himself and the therapy section of the zoo." Once the bucket was full enough he lead Keith into the building through the back door. "Others, we find in alley ways around town or pull them out of abusive homes. Shiro, is actually licensed to do stuff like that. If an animal is being treated wrong, he's allowed to walk right in and take that animal out of that home. Which is awesome in my opinion."

Keith nodded, making sure to save all of this new, interesting info to his database. He liked this place and the people who worked here. They seemed nice. This place seemed nice. He kind of wanted to stay here. Which was ridiculous but it doesn't mean he can't want it. "That's pretty neat. Not a lot of people are willing to do stuff like that for animals." He admitted. There had been a lot of people who just dumped their pets simply because they didn't want them anymore, or abused them for fun. He hated those kinds of people.

"Here, hold this for me." Lance stated, casually handing the bucket of bugs to Keith. He took it, following the direct order. "Uh, why?" He asked. Lance didn't answer. He instead stuck his hand right into the mass of crickets, letting them hold onto his hand. Gross. He then lifted his hand out and put it in one of the lizard tanks where two bearded dragons sat. Once his hand was all the way in, he shook his hand, sending the bugs to the ground. Right away the lizards scampered forwards to munch on the food. One of them even took the time to get the ones still on Lance's hand.

Keith watched, mesmerized at how calm the animals were with Lance being to close to them. Most animals would shy away form humans, especially zoo animals. But they seemed perfectly fine with a hand being in their home and Keith found that amazing. 

Once all the crickets were off of his hand, they moved to the next tank and did the same with a family of chameleons. "You must take really good care of them for them to like you and trust you this much." Keith commented as Lance repeated the feeding process. "I mean, Blue loved you like you were her mom, Rover is chill with you, and the lizards eat right out of your hand." 

Lance only shrugged. "I guess i have that effect on animals. I treat them like i would treat my friends. With kindness and respect. That and i spoil them with treats a lot." He said with a smile. They finished with the rest of the reptiles and moved on to the aquatic section and oh my god there were hippos.

Keith practically vibrated with joy when he saw a large enclosure with to of his favorite massive mammals lumbering around inside. Lance noticed and offered to let him feed them this time, and he was more him happy to say yes. And Keith was even more ecstatic when he found out that he had to go IN the pen to feed them. Not by hand though because that was dangerous. Even though they were calm animals they could be deadly on accident.

Lance filled a wheelbarrow with vegetables and roots with two melons on top. He wheeled the food into the enclosure through a small side door with Keith close behind him. They walked over to a small plastic kiddie pool where remains of yesterdays food sat. The two hippos stood nearby, watching them lazily as they waited for their food dish to be filled. "You can go ahead and give them the melons now. Just tap their nose and they'll open their mouth for you to toss the melon in." Lance said as he cleaned out the pool.

Keith nodded and grabbed one of the melons. The two hippos noticed and waddled over to him. They really liked melons. Once they were close enough. Keith did as he was told and lightly tapped the hippos snout. It opened its mouth eagerly and Keith tossed the melon in. The hippo closed it's mouth and crushed the round fruit with ease. With a smile, he did the same with the second hippo. Once they had their treat, they lumbered back to their previous spots to wait for their actual meal. 

And Keith was smiling the whole time. That was awesome. If he had a heart it would be pounding right now. Lance noticed and chuckled. "I guess i'll have to let you feed them more often." He stated. The pool was clean by now so Lance grabbed the wheelbarrow and dumped it into the plastic pool. Once that was done, the two left the enclosure and the hippos moved in to eat their meal.

"That was the coolest thing i have ever done." Keith confirmed. Out of all of his memories so far, that was now his favorite one by far. There was no pain in that memory, just pure joy an amazement. He wanted to feel that all of the time.

"We try to interact with all the animals here as much as possible. Not only is it fun, but that way the animals trust us more. You know, we haven't had a single animal try and escape this place. They like it here so they want to stay. I even tested my theory by opening the bird houses and none of them flew away. Well, one did but that was to steal a kids ice cream." He said with a laugh.

Keith laughed as well, picturing the event in his head the best he could. The two continued to chat as they fed and cleaned out the rest of the pens before moving to feed everything in the fish tanks. They had tons of tropical fish and even a pool of starfish that kids could hold if they wanted too. And of course, Keith wanted to hold them. So they stayed there for at least 15 minutes, letting Keith hold the weird shapes crustaceans in his hands. Eventually he did leave the small animals be.

"So, that's all the animals in my section." Lance said as he checked his watch. "And Shiro should still be here, so let's go see if we can catch him and say hi!" He said enthusiastically. Keith nodded.

"Sure. I'm excited to meet him after what you've told me." He said. Which wasn't a lie. He was curious about this guy. He sounded like he cared about animals almost as much as he himself did. 

So side by side, the two chatted about random animal facts as they walked to the other end of the zoo. They stopped by the other enclosures on the way and even ran into Pidge and Rover. They hung out there for a few minutes before heading on their way again. 

Soon they arrived to a small building that looked similar to a pharmacy on the outside, just with a glorified sign on the front that read 'Therapy wing' on it. Lance walked in first. "Yo Shiro you still in here?" He called out loud. Keith followed him in and his eyes widened at the many animals lounging around. The first thing he noticed was the two legged cat with wheels strapped to it's torso as it rolled over to them, meowing loudly.

"Well hey there beautiful!" Lance said, kneeling to pet the attention craving kitty. It purred loudly. "Meet princess, our to legged cat!" Lance announced. Keith leaned down to pet the small white cat on training wheels with a smile.

"I'll be out in a sec!" A deeper voice said from on of the back rooms. Moments later, a taller male came into the room. He had black hair with a random white tuff hanging just near his eyes. He looked muscular and well built. He was wearing black shirt that said 'these puns are armed and dadly' on the front of it. And it fit, because he did look like the kind of guy to be a dad, and he was missing his right arm. Behind him followed a dog that seemed to always be touching his side.

"Hey Shiro! I want you to meet someone. This is Keith!" Lance said. Keith waved to Shiro.

"It's nice to meet you, sir." The widget said in a small voice. The guy looked both huggable and intimidating at the same time.


	9. Perfect for the Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance give Keith an offer he can't refuse!

Perfect for the Job  
Yang Xiao Long TAGLINE  
Luckily for Keith, Shiro was more huggable than he was intimidating. He found this out when he shook the older mans hand. The grip was loose and felt well practiced, but not even close to a death grip like he was expecting. And while Keith was trying his hardest not to seem rude, he felt his gaze slip over to bare stub of what was left of Shiro's left arm. 

The whole are was a dark shade of the rest of Shiro's skin, revealing that it was not a clean cut to rid of the arm, but more likely an explosion or being ripped off. He didn't ask though. Staring was rude enough.

"So, what brings you to the zoo on a Sunday?" Shiro asked. The question was directed at Keith, but he could tell it was his way of indirectly asking Lance why he brought someone in on a Sunday. 

"Ah, you see, Keith here helped me out yesterday in saving Rover, so i let him join me today and gave him a tour as thanks." Lance stated casually leaning on the counter after picking up Princess into his arms. The two legged cat purred loudly at the attention. "Also he's staying at my place for now so i figured i'd let him tag along for work."

That statement surprised Keith a bit. For now? If his data was right then Lance had said last night only. They had agreed to last night only.

"Staying with you?" Shiro asked Lance before looking to Keith with a confused gaze.

"Uh, yeah." He said, suddenly feeling nervousness build up in his chest. He didn't like that emotion too much. By now Keith realized that him feeling these things called emotions was apparently a norm for him now. "I....don't exactly have a home........... Or a job. Or........anything now that i'm thinking about it." Keith explained. 

He watched Shiro's confusion drop into a face that reflected pity, and a bit of realization. "Oh, i see. I'm sorry to hear that." The tall amputee said sadly. The room filled with an uncomfortable silence for a moment. Even Lance said nothing. After a while Shiro decided to break the silence and cleared his throat a bit. "Well, Lance did offer you a tour around the zoo, so would you like to see some of the animals i have here?" He asked.

Keith nodded, glad for the break in silence and unwanted thoughts. Before any of them could start walking to go check out the rest of the animals, the dog at Shiro's side strided forward and bumped right into Keith's legs. The first thing he noticed was that it was a very, very fluffy husky. The second thing he noticed, was that it was blind. 

"Oh! I guess we can start with Sniff. He's 5 years old, and has been blind since birth. Also, i think he likes you." Shiro commented. Keith smiled and crouched the Sniff could, well, sniff. The dog smelled all over his face and hands before letting the strange person pet him. Keith could tell the dog knew something was up. He didn't smell human.

But it didn't care, because the moment Keith pet the dog, Sniff rolled over happy and accepted the belly rubs. Lance aw'd at them before speaking. "I think he likes you." The brunette stated. "Shiro found him in an old warehouse stuck under a fallen support beam. The apartment next to the building heard him whimpering for 2 days before finally calling someone about it. Poor guy was terrified of Shiro for the first week of him being here but warmed up when Shiro showed him was bacon was." He said with a smirk.

Shiro rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Sniff likes bacon because he can smell it from miles away. Thus the name Sniff. You can't have any food near him or he'll know it." Keith chuckled a bit as he pet the fluffy husky on the floor. "He tends to follow me around, using my leg as a guide. If he's not touching someone, he freaks out." Shiro explained. That was why when he had walked out moments ago the dog was practically leaning on him.

"Well, let's show you the others! Also, do you like snakes?" Lance asked, setting Princess down (who then proceeded to roll away in style) and walking over to Keith. The Widget stopped petting the husky and stood up to his full height when Lance was beside him. Sniff quickly made his way back over to Shiro and leaned against his leg once again. 

"I guess so? I have handled snakes before if that's what you're asking." He answered. "Why? Do you guys have a therapy snake?" Keith asked, mainly to Shiro. The older of the two humans nodded.

"Her name is Sunny, and she has absolutely no teeth." Shiro answered. Keith's eyes widened. Was that even possible? A snake with no teeth? How the heck was it alive? "She's a yellow Burmese python, 12 years old, and she was hatched with no teeth. None of us thought she would live, but she pulled through."

While Shiro talked, Keith ran thoughts through is head at a million miles an hour. "Do you hand feed her then?" He asked. Shiro nodded with a small grimace. "It's not exactly the most fun thin in the world to do, or the prettiest, but we make it work. She eats frozen rabbits and chickens, but we have to assist feed her because she doesn't have the teeth to pull the food into her throat." He explained. "Luckily at her age she only needs to eat once every month."

Keith nodded. "Well now i really want to meet her. Where is she?" He asked. Lance nodded for Keith to follow him and slipped down the hall behind Shiro, who followed him. And then he followed Shiro. The trio walked to one of the further back rooms and Lance opened the door for them. The room was dimly lit with numerous heat lamps that caused the room to feel a bit humid. Perfect for reptiles. 

Along the back wall of the small room was numerous glass tanks with tiny terrariums in each of them. near the other end of the room sat two or three massive trophy cases filled with plants and moss. He guessed that's where the bigger reptiles were kept. In the closest tank to him sat Sunny, the large python. 

Shiro walked over to the tank and tapped on the glass lightly before sliding the case open. Sunny let her tongue flick out to taste the air and as soon as she smelled Shiro, the large snake moved from her branch and to the open door where the man was waiting. He braced his one arm against the bottom of the case as Sunny slithered out and up onto her arm, and then around his shoulders.

"She knows that i'm the one who feeds her, so she's really nice to me a lot. Also, she likes at watch tv." Shiro stated once Sunny was wrapped happily around his body. Keith smiled and reached out to pet the scaly skin on the back of the legless reptile. The yellow scales were smooth and warm to the touch under his own cold hand. Remembering reptiles didn't like the cold, he reluctantly pulled his hand away. 

Lance pet Sunny as well before Shiro returned her to her home. "I have her out on Saturdays so the kids can pet her and see how non scary snakes can be." He explained, and Keith nodded. Saturdays must have been the busiest due to it being on the weekend where most didn't work or have school. "Well, before you guys came in i was about to head home for the day. It was nice to meet you Keith!" Shiro said, holding out his hand. Keith took it and shook the hand more confidently this time. He seemed like a nice guy. 

"See you tomorrow!" Lance said. Him and Keith turned to leave with a wave, and headed back outside (After giving Princess more attention of course). Once outside, Lance let loose a huge smile. "Ok, i wanted to ask you this after you met Hunk Allura and Coran, but they all went home already so i guess i'll just ask you anyways." He stated.

"Ask me what?" He wondered out loud. Keith tried thinking of questions that Lance would have. Of course he would gladly answer any questions the guy had but he still wanted to guess the question.

"Well, you're good with animals, not only that but you actually LIKE the animals and care about them. Also i can tell you like this place a lot. AND, you get along with Pidge and Shiro." Lance said. 

"Ok? What are you leading up too? Because that's not a question-" Keith pointed out to the taller boy.

"What i'm saying, is that it'd be cool if you worked here. Would you like a job here at the zoo?" Lance asked. "You fit the standards we have set. You actually care about the animals, you're not blatantly rude to people, and you seem like a pretty chill guy. So yeah, wanna work for me and my numerous animal companions?" The brunette asked with a huge, slightly nervous grin. Keith wasn't sure why Lance seemed nervous.

"Uhm, are you sure? I'm literally just a guy you picked up off the street yesterday." He pointed out. Why the heck would Lance want him as an employee? Things were running just fine here so far, and the zoo seemed fine. It didn't need another helper. Plus, Keith was a Widget. He didn't exactly need money for anything. But then again he didn't feel like letting Lance know that he was a machine. Lance thought he was a human. As a Widget, his job was to make sure that their human was happy. And if being human was what made Lance happy, he was going to keep it that way.

His human? Lance didn't own him. So Lance wasn't his. But why did it feel like he was? Violet still had the contract probably, and her name was still in his system as 'Owner'. So why did Keith feel like he belonged to Lance instead? Was it because Violet had gotten rid of him? Or was it another reason? He didn't know.

"Well, like i said. You're perfect for the job and you seem like a cool guy. Also, if you had a job you'd be able to get a place of your own instead of living in my guest room." Lance stated, snapping Keith out of his thoughts.

"You make a fair argument." Keith stated. "I guess so? You're offering and i don't really have anything else to do. Is this why you told me to come with you when you fed the animals?" He asked curiously. Lance nodded with a sly grin. 

"So, you can start tomorrow morning and help me with my section. By next week you should have your own section to work with. I might give you reptile duty though, so that way i have more time for the aquariums. Also you can take charge of the hippo enclosure too if you want." Lance said.

"Yes." He said the moment Lance mentioned the hippos. He got happy feelings in his system when he thought about the majestic waddling creatures. So powerful, yet so calm. Also they were adorable. 

The Cuban laughed with a smile when Keith eagerly said yes to the hippos. "So, your pay will start at minimum wage and you work up from there. The better you work, the more likely you are to get a raise or promotion. And if you really wanted to, you can do what Shiro does and have one of the animals out for people to pet and hold during open hours. You get paid based on your behavior around people as well. Pidge is the only one of us to really not do that though. She tends to scare some of the kids." He muttered the next part under his breath. "On purpose-"

Keith smiled. "I think i can handle it."


	10. Story Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have some backstories!

The next few days had been......hectic, to say the least. After the tour and on the spot job offer, Lance and Keith ended up going clothes shopping for the Widget, as he had nothing to wear. Each of the staff members at the zoo had color coordinated clothes, and since Keith had been put in charge of the reptiles, he was red.

Lance was blue, Allura pink, Hunk yellow and so on so forth. He almost laughed a bit when he heard that Shiro's assigned color was purple. Not that there was anything wrong with purple, it just seemed like such dainty color compared to how Shiro looked. I mean, come on, the guy could have put him through the wall if he wanted to. Even with just one arm.

After clothes had been dealt with, the two went grocery shopping and it was then that Keith tried to put his foot down. The widget insisted that Lance didn't need to do all of this for him. Because he really didn't. Widgets didn't need to eat. Then again Lance didn't know he was a widget, and Keith wanted to keep it that way. 

"Seriously, Lance, you don't have to. You've already done too much for me-" Keith said as they walked down the aisle's in the store. Lance lead the way and pushed around a cart filled with various foodstuffs. Behind him Keith pushed a second cart filled with house pet supplied for Shiro and his numerous cats and dogs. 

"Oh hush, you're a guest, and as your host and boss, i need to make sure that you're comfy until you can get a place of your own. And pay day isn't until next week so i know that you can't afford anything of your own as of now." Lance stated, grabbing a random box of cereal and tossing it in the cart. 

"You shouldn't be spending all of this one me though. You don't owe me anything." Keith argued. He felt glad that Lance was concerned about his well being, but he also felt bad because he was spending unnecessary money on him.

"Oh hush. You saved Pidge's dog and helped me out at work. AND you helped lighten the load at the zoo by accepting the job. Running a place that big with only six people isn't all that easy." The brunette stated, getting a giant box of pop-tarts from the shelf and tossing it in with the other groceries. Keith raised a sightly judgmental eyebrow at him and the box of sugar coated pastries. "Those are for Pidge." He explained.

"Ah, i see. Is she the the 'make up for my height with sass' kind of person?" He asked. Lance nodded quickly to that analogy.

"One time she was late to work and didn't have any coffee, and man that was a day at hell for all of us-" He said with a chuckle. "We ended up sending Allura on a mission to get her an espresso so she wouldn't murder anyone." Lance smiled at the memory, which caused Keith to smile a bit as well. It was almost like Lance's emotions were contagious. He laughed whenever Lance did and smiled when he did.

"Yeesh, sounds like a nightmare to me. People can be scary without coffee." Keith stated as they continued down the aisle. He remembered one time when........she........had a bad morning and they were out of coffee. Everyone had a bad day at work.

"There was another time when it happened, but we had learned out lesson and got Pidge a coffee machine in her section of the zoo and we all make sure it's always stocked. If it's almost out, whoever see's it first goes and buys more stuff for it. You included now." Lance explained. Keith nodded, storing all the new info to his data base.

For the rest of the store trip, Lance told him stories about the zoo and it's past. He started with how he had become the owner of the place. "I had just gotten out of high school and was looking for a job, as most graduates do. This place was on the verge of closing when i decided to visit here in search of work. At the time this place didn't even have half of the animals we have now, and the place was in shambles. He ended up hiring me to try and fix up the place, but after a few weeks he gave up and just signed the whole place over to me. Unfortunately the bank was trying to close the place down to due the low income."

Keith frowned a bit. People only seemed to care about money these days. But Lance wasn't finished with the story. "Luckily for me, one of my friends parents owned the bank, and they offered me a loan to fix up the place. It was like they were giving the zoo one last chance. I used the loan to clean up the place and make sure the animals were happy, and the bit of money that i had saved up for college, i spent it on making a website and advertising the zoo. Attendance spiked and doubled in less than a week!" The taller male said with a huge smile. 

"After a few months i was able to pay off the loan and start getting more variety in animals. Around that time my main man Hunk joined the crew and started working here. After that it was Pidge. She's on her last year at the high school now. 16 and graduating high school, can you believe that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. Keith chuckled. "She was looking for a part time job to afford to go on robotics club trips since her parents are always busy, and i hired her of course. Then she just kinda stuck around."

"Next was Shiro. He had just gotten out of the marines a week before i had met him and he was visiting the zoo. Apparently he came here a lot before i ran this place and he was glad to see i had fixed it up. I asked if he wanted to work here and he said sure. A week later the guy shows up with Sniff, asking if i can fund a crazy idea of his. Now we have multiple animals with disabilities that he takes care of."

He paused the story to ask Keith what kind of chip dip he liked. Wanting to spice things up a but, he grabbed the hottest cheese dip on the shelf. "Oh spicy~ i like it." Lance stated with a bit of tease in his voice. That small tease made Keith's chest flutter a bit with a familiar emotion. He ignored it and urged Lance to continue his story.

"About a month after we had set up the building for the therapy animals, this chick with white hair storms into my office one day demanding that she see my paperwork for what i feed the animals. Long story short, the chick was Allura and she is now in charge of ordering the animal feeds." He said with a small cringe. "Allura can be scary when she wants to be."

"Sounds like most women." Keith stated. So far he only knew four females. She who shall not be named, Lauren, Pidge, and now technically Allura. All of them intimidating in their own way. Lance nodded, agreeing with him with a small laugh. The two were almost done and started making their way to the cash register with two full carts.

"And last but not least, Coran. The mustached maniac. He's kind of like Allura's crazy uncle. And let me tell you, this guy had been EVERYWHERE and has had some crazy encounters with wild animals. He used to run a tour in south america with Allura's dad. And he is crazy smart. Kind of like you but crazier. He had animal info right there when you need it. Coran is also our personal vet so that's a bonus. He convinced be into letting him be the vet by showing me a very gross video of him helping an elephant give birth."

Keith cringed, not wanting to picture that. Baby elephants were cute as heck but that's still gross. "Did he give you any warning before he showed you the video?" He asked. Lance shook his head as a 'nope'. 

"You get used to him though. He wears a cliche safari explorer outfit to impress the kids though, so i guess that's good. Coran is full of surprises, so expect the unexpected with him." Lance warned. Keith made sure to keep that memo in his 'important' files. "So, that's the crew. And now you're here so welcome aboard to the crazy family."

"After about a year, we all agreed on getting lions for the main attraction and the mascot. Thus the five lions we have now. When people hear about this place, the first thing they hear about is the lions. If you type in 'zoo with the cool lions' on the internet we're the first website to pop up. Which is awesome! Pidge runs the website though, not me." He explained. Keith looked up the website in his head while Lance grabbed a few things of canned food. He was right about it being the first one to pop up.

He held back from reading into the site too much though. Keith wanted to hear about it from Lance first. He liked the way Lance told the story.

"It's been nearly 8 years now and things keep getting better. We haven't had any unnatural animal deaths, no attendee injuries with the exception of a drunk dude who ran into a pole and broke his nose, and income is great!" Lance said happily. They reached the register and Keith helped unload the stuff onto the counter to be paid for.

"Wait someone broke their nose?" The robot asked. He never understood why humans drank alcohol if it did stuff like that to them. Drinking had hurt a lot of people. One of his co-workers back at 'you know whose' house had been drunk and fell off one of the fences, breaking his leg. Luckily Keith had been programmed with basic first aid and he managed to keep the guys leg in a good position while they waited on an ambulance. Thanks to him the guy had made a full recovery.

"Yeah! I had one of our bearded dragons out for the kids and the guy walked over wanting to grab him but he ended up walking into a pole and knocked himself out. I had Hunk call someone to escort him home and he never showed up again. I think he forgot ever coming here to be honest." Lance said. Soon they had all the groceries and pet supplies in bags and back into the carts. Keith nearly short circuited when he saw the total was a couple hundred dollars. Usually that would be nothing in the eyes of robot that cost over a billion dollars, but Lance was a friend. And someone that amount had been spent on HIM.

"I'll pay you back when i can." He promised. Lance shrugged and brushed him off as he pulled out his wallet and payed.

"Don't worry about it. This is how much i usually end up paying and Shiro covers the pet supply part. I needed to go grocery shopping anyways." Keith sighed. Lance told him not to worry so he had to listen. The one thing he hated most about not being a human. He had to follow orders no matter what. He didn't say he couldn't pay Lance back later though, so ha. Loopholes.

Once everything was payed for, they wheeled the carts out to the blue pickup truck and tossed the bags in the back. Keith insisted that he threw the heavy stuff in and Lance let him. Once that was taken car of, the two hopped into their seats and drove off back to the zoo.

Back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Net neutrality has been voted 3-2 to repeal. This does not mean it's gone.  
> It still has to go through the whole court process to convince that it should be repealed. All is not lost yet. Keep fighting and posting and calling your representatives.   
> Please copy and paste, this is important information.
> 
> *Reposted*


	11. Spotlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keiths first day at work!

By Wednesday, Lance had deemed Keith ready to stay his first day on the job. Keith denied it at first, unsure if he actually was the right guy for the job, but Lance had reassured him a million times the night before hand that he would do just fine. Luckily, Wednesdays weren't as busy as the rest of the week due it it being dead center of the 7 day period. It was lucky because that meant Keith didn't have to interact with a lot of people on his first day. His only requirements were to answer attendee questions, and take care of the animals.

At first it sounded easy enough. SO he threw on his color coded outfit and went to work with Lance in the morning. It was nearly the same as his old job, but this time he had to interact with hundreds of strangers, and he was actually getting paid for his labor. For the first few hours, he really didn't do much. Keith fed the animals in the reptile house, made sure their tanks were clean and the temperature was ok, and them did the same for the hippos. Lance helped him with the hippo's because he was still new to this though. 

When the clock hit two p.m Keith then knew what Lance meant when he said that EVERYONE came to this zoo. When school was out, the entire establishment was filled with teen's and kids with their parents or guardians and Keith started to panic.

The poor widget had never been this close to this many people all at once, especially children. The younger one's kept trying to hold the animals without permission and the teen kept trying to mess with the animals and annoy the small reptiles in order to get them to move. He ended up going to find Lance and asked him for help. 

"Distract them. Get one of the iguanas out and give them something to look at so they won't mess with the tanks. Why mess with a tank when you can see a giant iguana up close?" The brunette stated. He currently had his arms elbow deep in the small pool of water filled with starfish and other tiny animals that kids could play with. "It works every time. And if someone asks nicely and looks like they'll be gentle, they can hold the animal and pose for pictures." Lance stated. 

"You sure? Most of the people in there were kind of pushy." Keith replied. He didn't like humans all the much now that he was thinking about it. Unpredictable and sometimes violent. Lance was ok though. While unpredictable, he was nice. "I don't want to endanger an animal if i don't have too." The Widget said, crossing his arms.

"Just make sure you always have a hand on the little guy, and everything will be fine. You're stressed and i can tell so don't deny it." Lance replied, removing his arm from the pool and flicking his hands dry. Small children hobbled around them, ogling at the tiny starfish and barnacles in the pool. "So, try my idea, and if it doesn't work, let me know and i can take over for you. This is your first day so i won't hold anything against you if you back down." 

Not only did Keith feel bad now, but he felt a swell of defiance as well, as if the statement had been a challenge. And for some reason, he did NOT want to back out on a challenge. "I'll give it a shot." Keith stated. "I just need some time to get used to this much people i guess. If you couldn't tell, i have almost no people skills whatsoever." He pointed out, uncrossing his arms. The zoo closed up around 8, right after the daily lion show. Keith still had yet to watch it since Lance had taken him shopping for the first two days.

"Alright, if you say so. Better hurry back before someone get's into the bearded dragon tanks though." Lance said with a small tease. Keith gave him a thankful smile before he rushed back to the reptile house. Once there he let out a relieved sigh when he checked and saw that all the reptiles were accounted for. There were a few kids who kept tapping on the glass however that just wouldn't listen to him. Time for the distraction idea.

Walking over, he asked a few people to move away from the iguana tank before he opened it up and pulled out on of the larger, more lazy males who Lance had said was the most friendly one. The 6 foot iguana was pretty heavy, but was more than happy to be held so he didn't make it to difficult to remove from the heat filled tank. Many of the smaller kids noticed immediately and surrounded Keith, wanting to touch the large green lizard. 

"What's his name?" One of the teen girls asked, taking a quick picture. Keith smiled and let the iguana splay across his arm with his tail hanging to the floor. 

"This big guy here, is Chunk." Keith stated, petting the Iguana's spines along it's back. "He's the oldest iguana here. 7 years old." The widget explained.

"That's pretty cool. Can i hold him?" The girls boyfriend asked. Keith nodded and the taller human stepped forwards. A few of the guys friends chuckled and teased about the thing biting him or eating him. 

"Make sure to support his body weight. If he likes you, he'll let his legs dangle to be more comfy." Keith explained. The teen nodded and let Keith place the iguana onto his arms. The Widget made sure to keep a hand on the reptile the entire time.

"This is so cool-" The guy said. The dude's girlfriend smiled and took a picture of them. "What does he eat?" The teen asked. "I'm guessing they eat meat since they look like dinosaurs."

"You moron they eat plants!" One of his buddies stated. The girlfriend rolled her eyes.

"No they eat bugs." She replied, shoving the guys stomach. "You guys are both idiots."

"Well, you're all technically right." Keith stepped in to keep a fight from breaking out. A few of the smaller children had walked closer and were petting Chunk's tail in awe. "He eats vegetables, eggs, and crickets. Sometimes we give them a cantaloupe to munch on if they behave." He said with a smile. The trio of highschoolers nodded with slightly impressed looks in their eyes.

"Huh, i always thought they ate meat." The male holding the lizard stated. Chunk had decided to take a nap by now and was sleeping lazily. "Well, we still have to check out the rest of the zoo. Thanks for letting me hold him!" The stranger said before giving the sleeping lump back to Keith, who accepted the lizard back happily. 

The group moved on and a more kids came over to pet Chunk and take pictures. Lance's advice worked, and he didn't have anymore issues. When Chunk wanted back in the tank, he simply got one of the bearded dragons out, and so on and so forth. By the time 5:30 rolled around on the clock, the crowd moved from the smaller exhibits and towards the center of the zoo to snag good seats for the lion show. When there was only a few people left in the reptile house, he cleaned up and moved himself to the center as well.

Being an employee, Keith was able to watch from the opposite side of the enclosure from the crowd. Behind him was the small building that held the staircase down to the lion pit. Moments after he arrived, the other employees showed up as well, Lance in the lead.

"Hey you decided to show up! Well, all i can say is enjoy the show~" The zookeeper said with a wink. The wink caused something in Keiths chest to spark and he felt a warm feeling waft it's way through his body. He shifted on his feet to try and ignore it.

"Well i said i would be here, didn't i?" He replied. Keith looked behind Lance and saw who he guessed was Hunk.

"Hi you must be Keith! I'm Hunk, second in charge around here. It's nice to meet you!" The heavy built tan human said, offering his hand. Keith took the hand and shook it firmly with his own, giving the larger male a kind smile.

"It's nice to meet you too. Lance told me a lot of good things about you." The robot said, releasing Hunks hand. He kind of reminded Keith of hippos. He liked Hippos. Gentle giants, but still powerful nonetheless. 

"Well, let's get the show started! People are waiting!" Pidge rushed, walking into the enclosure without the other. Lance quickly waved to Keith as the others rushed to follow and get ready for the show. Keith waved back before turning and looking into the lion pen. He was surprised to find that the lions seemed to know what was going on and were all sitting proudly on different parts of the giant rock hill in the back of the enclosure, Black sitting proudly above them all. Red however stayed hidden in the shadows, looking uninterested but on edge with all the noise.

Keith could relate to Red. He didn't like all of the noise either and kind of wanted to go back to the quiet reptile house. Or even the hippo enclosure. Funny how he was designed to look and act human, but here he was, a Widget relating to a giant temperamental cat. But he fought through the urge to leave and stayed. He didn't want to make Lance upset. The blue eyed human really wanted him to see this. So Keith stayed put. For Lance.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to our daily performance!" Lance announced, walking into the enclosure. The lights around the pen dimmed and a single spotlight focused on him. Pidge must have rigged a lighting system to follow him around as he walked through the pit. "I see some familiar faces in the crowd, but a lot of you are new here." The brunette cast a smile over his shoulder towards Keith and the robot felt the warm feeling in his chest once again. He still couldn't figure this feeling out.

Luckily he was distracted from the warm fuzzy feeling as Lance continued his intro. "For those of you who are new here, i won't tell you what happens. I will give you the wonder of experiencing with your eyes, not your ears~" Lance teased with a low, over dramatized bow that caused Keith to laugh a bit. He looked ridiculous, but he guess that Lance was doing it on purpose. The blue clothed lion tamer moved out of the spotlight and let Pidge take his place. The green clothed female said nothing as she stood there with a smirk, and the upbeat circus music started to play.

Slowly she raised one of her hands. On the rock behind her, Green perked up and hopped down from her perch. She padded her way over to Pidge, and once by her side, the small female lion reared up on her back legs and touched Pidge's hands with one of her paws in the form of a high five. The crowed clapped happily, impressed. Pidge and Green moved of to the side and made room for Hunk to take her place on the small stage that had been set up. 

Instead of holding up his hand, Hunk simply kneeled to the floor with his head low. The second larger lion, Yellow, saw this and lumbered from his spot over to his trainer and caretaker. Once a few feet behind Hunk, Yellow pounced and landed proudly on Hunks shoulders. Hunk stood, supporting the large lions weight on his shoulders. The crowed cheered yet again at the practiced trick. Next was Lance. 

He flaunted dramatically into the spotlight with a teasing smirk that fit him all too well. He raised his hand, and snapped his fingers once. Blue was bounding over to him immediately and happily with an audible purr. Once close enough, Lance lowered his hand to a foot above the ground, and Blue rolled to slide under it, stomach brushing against his hand. One out from under the hand, Blue rolled back to her feet, and then jumped clear over Lance's head, and then reappearing right between his knees. The crowd let out an even louder cheer this time.

Keith even clapped, impressed at the bond that Lance had with the furry carnivore. 

He watched and Lance moved off to his spot, and Shiro took the spotlight. His pure black shirt only had one sleeve, showing very clearly that he only had one arm. He wasn't dragged down by the fact that it was gone, in fact, he wore the fact proudly, showing that despite the odds he could still do what many saw as impossible. 

Suddenly the cheerful music faded out, and the crowd went silent as they all locked their eyes on Shiro. The muscular tamer raised two fingers to his lips, and he let out a shrill whistle. The whistle echoed off the pen walls, and once it faded out, Black leaped from his spot on the rock, followed by Red and the two alpha males jogged to Shiro, one on each side of him. Shiro smiled at each of them.

"Enjoy the show~" He said proudly with a bow. Beside him the lions reared up and curled their lips back to reveal their many sharp teeth. 

And together they let out a deafening roar.

Let the show begin.


	12. Call of the Lion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What better way to woo someone then by showing off with giant cats?

Loud Celtic drum music began pulsing out of the speakers surrounding the lion pen and suddenly all of the mighty beasts were on the move. The bright white spotlight faded out and was replaced by many more colorful ones. Each lion had a spotlight colored to match their names. Black had more of a purple light on him however as he bounded around the pen. 

Keith watched as Blue and Green charged right at each other. At the last possible second, Lance and Pidge whistled to the lions. Blue dropped to the ground low, and Green leaped clear over her head with a triumphant roar. Within seconds the crowd was cheering and the lions were on the move again. 

Meanwhile, their handlers were doing something different. Pidge vanished behind a rock only to reappear a moment later wearing a tribal looking outfit, complete with a head crown of feathers and a swishing green cloak. The short lion tamer let out her own version of a roar, and Green answered her call with an even louder roar. The lion ran over to her and stood by her side. 

Everyone in the crowd cheered again for Green and Pidge, happy with the performance. With everyone focused on the team green, Lance made his move and whipped of his shirt to reveal a blue tank top decorated with what looked like war paint. He looked ridiculous and it caused Keith to smirk a bit. Lance looked ridiculous n purpose. He was here to entertain, not show off.

The Widget went along with it and clapped with a smile of his own. He saw Lance glace up at him and return the smile. The warm feeling flitted back into the robots chest cavity and this time it was almost to intense to ignore. He felt the heat in his cheeks this time as well. 

Luckily for him, it was time for Blue to steal he show. Lance let out a howl to the sky above and Blue answered his call. The graceful lion bolted up the massive hill, all the way to the top. Once there, Lance whipped a fuzzy ball of some sorts out of his pocket. With a devilish smirk, he tossed the toy into the air way for out in front of Blue.

Keith started to panic a bit. Lions could jump pretty far, but where was she going to land? The hill she was on was pretty much a cliff of solid stone. And she was all the way at the top so if she jumped, Blue would no doubt hurt herself.

But that didn't stop her. Both Lance and Shiro let out the command whistle when the ball was high enough in the air, and she leaped. Time seemed to slow down as Blue soared from the rock further than Keith thought she would. And very gently, her jaws closed around the stuffed prize. But now was the part Keith dreaded. The 20 ft drop below her.

She started to descend, and people in the crowd including Keith all gasped in horror. But a much more loud sound drowned out their gasps. Black roared and jumped form a nearby outcropping in the rock, leaping right at Blue.

Keith watched in awe as Black snagged Blue by the scruff, and together they landed safely on a patch of dirt.

The crowd cheered and shouted louder than all the other performances beforehand and Keith let out a sigh of what he felt was relief. He would have to mention to Lance later that while the stunt was impressive, it was still risk and maybe they should consider toning it down a bit. Keith understood that they were technically show animals and had possibly years of practice, but you can never be to careful.

The show continued with ease. The lions preformed simple tricks like giving each other piggy back rides and doing simple dog tricks. Blue seemed to like high fives a lot and every time she saw a hand go up she was there in an instant to tap it with her paw.

But Red? He tended to avoid doing anything and stayed out of the spotlight as much as possible. Sometimes the lion would even ignore one of Shiro's commands and just sit there. Luckily Shiro knew how to make it look like part of the act and made Red seem hilariously stubborn. At some point the one armed tamer almost got Red to roll over, but the young lion stopped halfway and was just laying there with his legs in the air.

"You're taking a nap now!?" Shiro over dramatized the act drastically, causing the crowd to laugh. Going along with it, Shiro dropped to the ground as well. In an instant the rest of the lion piled on top of him like he was a warm pillow. Which to them, he was.

Towards the end of the show, they switch from tricks more to comedy, pulling for stunts and joke's like Shiro had. Lance even 'Kidnapped' Pidge and had Green come to the rescue by tackling Lance to the ground and gnawing playfully on his hair and clothes.

Hunk and Shiro had occupied the majority of the crowd by blind folding themselves and trying to catch their lions. Red of course hid to where no one could find him while Black and yellow hovered around the two, always moving from their grasp at the last second.

Keith had to admit, it was kind of adorable. Everything Shiro or Hunk got close to running into something the lions would lead them the other way out of harms reach. Not only did the lions act like joyful pets around them, but they cared about their assigned human.

Except for Red, who Keith had deemed the sass child of the pride. The middle aged lion couldn't care less about the humans in the pen. At least he wasn't attacking them.

Soon the show drew to an end with the lions and their tamers standing in formation on the large rock heap, bowing to the crowd. They cheered and applauded before all leaving to make their way out of the zoo. A few stuck around but closing time was in a few moments so not too many remained. Lance and the others went back out of the pen the way they went in, leaving the lions to do their own thing.

Keith waited patiently where he stood for the group to come out of the small building that led to the lion pen. He didn't have to wait for very long, as Lance had been in a rush and came bolting out of the building long before the others. The tall brunette was by his side on seconds, out of breath as he leaned on the fence to the pen.

"So, what did you think of that, huh?" He asked expectantly with a huge smile. In this moment Lance looked like a small child showing off a drawing to their parent proudly. In this situation, Keith was in the parent spot so he couldn't say no.

"I'll admit, that was pretty impressive. You guys did a really good job with the lions." He said, offering a smile of his own. That sent Lance off like a firework and his smile only grew.

"Aw man that's a relief. I made sure that Blue did her special trick because i wanted you to see how awesome she was." Lance stated, reaching up with a hand to brush the hair from his forehead with a smile.

Lance had Blue do that trick, for him? Was he trying to impress Keith? If he had, than it definitely worked. Keith was impressed by the show, the tricks, the acts, but he was mostly impressed with something else. That Lance had pulled a risky move just for him. To show off, to him.

"Why?" Keith asked before he could stop himself from sounding rude. "I mean, yes, i loved it, but you had Blue do that just because i was watching. Why? I'm just a bit confused." He asked.

Lance was about to say something but he was cut off when Pidge suddenly tackled the tall male from behind. "Haha we did great! Green pulled off her new intro smooth as butter!" The green garbed teen exclaimed. Shiro and Hunk stood there as well.

"So what did you think of the show?" Hunk asked to Keith. 

"Pretty cool." He said with a kind smile. Hunk accepted the short answer with a nod. Shiro seemed happy with the reply as well. Using his one arm, the amputee pat Keith on the shoulder.

"Well, im glad you enjoyed your first day on the job! I would stick around to talk, but i have to close up my section and head home. See you tomorrow Keith!" The tallest of the group said cheerfully before walking off. The sun started to set by now and the dim yellow lamps around the zoo started to flicker on. Pidge made a quiet comment to herself to fix the flickering later.

"Well, I gotta do the same. I'm supposed to babysit my niece's tonight so i gotta get going. It was nice meeting you Keith and i'm glad you enjoyed the show!" Hunk announced. Keith and him exchanged a quick handshake before heading off as well.

"Same deal as the others. Later losers!" Pidge hollered before running off back to her part of the zoo. Lance chuckled as his team vanished to do their work.

"We should probably do the same. Meet me at the truck at 6:30? That should be enough time for us to close up." Lance offered. Keith nodded. He could probably get it done faster, so he decided to make some fun out of it.

"Last one to the truck does the dishes?" Keith challenged, a smirk on his face. Lance's eyes widened long with his toothy smile.

"Oh it is on, mullet!" Lance stated. Leaving Keith in a state of shock, he bolted off. First he tried to impress the robot, not he was insulting him. Man humans were really confusing.

"Wh-what!? do NOT have a mullet!" Keith fired back. But Lance was to far away to hear him. Or he just didn't care. Either way it gave him a burning determination to make Lance do the dishes. So turned and started jogging back to the reptile house. 

On his way to the humid house of lizards and snakes, he locked up the hippo pen, making sure to toss each of them a melon for their good behavior through the day. Once to the reptile house Keith made sure no one was left inside before dimming all of the lamps and turning on the darker heaters that had no lights on them instead. Once that was done her left the building and fumbled with the keys on his belt to lock the door. Once that was finished he went out back to make sure that it was cleaned up and neat, before he left.

Once that was taken care of, he made a mad dash for the truck. The main gate to the zoo had already been locked up so he had to take one of the smaller employee only doors instead. Once out, he bolted for the reserved parking section. Since everyone else had left already, there was no need to doge cars.

With a triumphant smile, Keith saw the blue truck and was prideful when he saw that the lights were still off an no one was inside yet. So he slowed to a jog to preserve his battery power (Which was starting to run low again). Just as he reached the truck, luck decided to turn against him yet again.

"HELLO!" Lance shouted, popping up headfirst from the bed of the truck. Keith let out a girly screech and stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over his own feet. "Hahaha you should see your face!" Lance shouted, laughing hysterically. Keith rolled his eyes. Great, now he had to do dishes.

"Oh shut up. You probably cheated-" The Widget stated, gaining his balance again. He rolled his eyes wand walked over to the passenger side of the truck. Lance, snickering, hooped out of the truck bed and moved to get into the driver seat. 

"I did not cheat! I just know a few shortcuts and have ways to shorten my close up time. Practice makes perfect my friend!" The blue eyed trickster said with pride. There was a smug glint in his eyes as well.

But if practice makes perfect, then he assumed Lance had a lot of practice when it came to looks.


	13. A Lions Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An act of kindness, and an unpleasant surprise.

Thanks to Lance and the others, Keith found himself actually looking forward to the next day at work. Now he had a rough idea how to handle crowds and if he had a question, he could ask any of the others for help. Lance had thankfully informed him that all of them knew how to cover each of the section in case someone was sick and couldn't cover the shift. Not that Keith could get sick per say, but it still made him feel a bit better.

Speaking of feeling, the Widget seemed to notice that around Lance, he felt things a lot more after. And they were always good things. Life relief, joy, and sometimes even outright silly. Last night on their way home Lance had made a joke and Keith fired right back at him with his own joke (which he actually stole from the internet but hey, good enough). It felt good to make jokes. Especially since they made Lance laugh and smile.

So that night when he lay in bed charging himself with a spare power cord he found in the reptile house, he tried to think of more ways to make Lance smile. And by think, that meant more internet surfing. He then realized how handy it was to have 24 hour access to the wide web simply because he was a machine. 

So an hour before they had to rise to get ready for work, Keith made up his mind, and headed down to the kitchen as silently as he could. 

Once there, he started thinking of what he could make that Lance would like. He had only been with the brunette for a few days short of a week, so the Widget was nearly clueless when it came to Lance's preference in taste. Thanks to some of their few meals in the past week Keith found he was wrong when he assumed Lance was a vegetarian. Apparently Allura and Coran were though, so he made sure to remember that detail for when he met them. 

When he realized time was ticking, Keith said screw it and went with omelettes. They were easy enough to make and not too time consuming. Nodding to himself, Keith marched over to the fridge to grab the eggs, bacon, ham, and cheese. Bare feet on the cold tile floor, he walked over to the counter and set the ingredients down. After that he moved to a cupboard to grab some seasonings. Playing a video in his mind, he followed it step by step to make sure that the egg meals would turn out perfect.

Grabbing two clean bowls, he guess Lance probably had some sort of a diet, seeing as he held pride in his looks and health. So he only put two eggs into Lance's bowl and two in his own. As mentioned before, he didn't need to eat but he did anyways as to seem more human and not be rude by turning down food constantly. 

Once he had the video mesmerized to his database, Keith decided to help pass the time by playing quiet music to himself. Only he could hear it, luckily. It would be strange to hear music coming out of a person, wouldn't you think? 

Humming along to the soft orchestral music, he started to add ingredients to the bowls of uncooked eggs. Keith didn't have a sense of taste, so he simply copied what he put into Lance's dish instead of throwing random things in. 

Half an hour later, the eggs went into the pan. Keith decided to make his own first and Lance's afterwards so it would still be warm when the blue eyed Cuban woke up. Slowly he dumped the bowl into the small rounded pan and watched as it started to cook. Now, a sense of smell he did have. All widget were programmed to be able to smell in case of emergency. Like a fire or a gas leak.

And he confirmed that the omelette in process smelled amazing. Keith could only hope it tasted as great as it smelled. Leaving the food to cook, the robot walked over to the coffee machine and turned it on so it would have time to heat up. Looking at the clock and seeing the time, he started to feel a bit of time crunch. Using a bit of his own battery power, he touched the side of the coffee maker and it sparked before the water started to boil.

"Something smells awesome." A sleep ridden voice stated from behind him. Keith jumped a bit and whirled around to find Lance standing there, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He didn't seemed to have noticed the power spark Keith just did, thankfully. With a yawn Lance waltzed all they way into the kitchen.

"You're up early." Keith commented, looking back to the clock. It was only 6:45, and Lance usually got up at 7. Even then he took a while in the bathroom to get prettied up for the day. "This was supposed to be done when you got up. So, surprise i guess?" He said with a half forced, shy smile with a touch of feigned guilt.

Lance only smiled. "Thanks buddy. You didn't have to." The coffee pot dinged behind Keith and the deep blue eyes brightened up in a split second. "Oh hell yeah, coffee sounds great-" The brunette said before moving to make a cup. The Widget beat him to it as he already had an empty cup in his hand. Noticing this, Lance smiled and stepped back. "Well thank you again kind sir. May i ask why you made me breakfast though?"

Keith shrugged and thought of a quick excuse that wasn't a lie. "Well, You've been unbelievably kind to me for the past week, so i figured i should start returning the favor somehow. This is almost literally the least i can do." Keith said. Realizing there was still food on the stove, he quickly hurried over to keep it from burning. Thankfully it was pretty much done so he folded it and plopped it onto a plate. Holding the plate in one hand he used the other grab the coffee and made his way to set it down on the table.

"Again, thanks you. I could really use this." Lance said, sitting down at the table where Keith had just set breakfast down. "I actually had to stay up later last night to finish filling out some paperwork for the animal feed, so this really helped boost my mood." He explained with a smile. And that smile reflected off of Keith through one of his own.

"Well, i be out here to join you in just a sec, i didn't think you'd be up early so i gotta finish mine really quick." Keith stated before hurrying back to the kitchen. Once there he quickly hurried and pour his own bowl into the pan. He turned up the heat so it would be done a bit faster. Sure it would taste different but hey, no taste buds so it didn't really matter to him. 

Once his dish was on a plate he hurried back out to the dining room. Lance had already started eating but was only about halfway done. So it was edible, awesome.

"Dude, you have got to teach me how to make omelettes like this holy crow." Lance stated between bites. "Seriously this tastes awesome. I didn't think i even had the ingredients to make something that tastes this great. Almost as good as Hunk's cooking might i add. Then again i swear he's Gordon Ramsey's son or something. No one can cook better than he can, no offense." Lance stated.

"Hmm, i'll have to ask him about that next time i see him at work." Keith stated. He took a bite from his own food, realizing he hadn't started eating yet. A bit embarrassed, the Widget realized that he had been staring at Lance the whole time.

"Oh quiznak we gotta go!" Lance blurted out, standing up so fast he nearly shook the table. Quickly the brunette chugged his coffee and scarfed down his omelette before rushing to get his work shirt. 

"But we don't have to be there for another half hour." Keith stated simply.

"The lions have a checkup with Coran today! We gotta be there like, now!" Lance yelled form the other room. Keith didn't remember being told this beforehand, but jumped into action regardless. Tossing his own food into the trash, Keith took care of the dishes quickly before hastily throwing on some socks and shoes. By the time he finished tying up the laces Lance was ready and jogging out to the truck. Keith was quick to follow.

Fortunately for the two of them, traffic wasn't to bad so they made it to the zoo parking lot within a few short minutes. They hopped out of the truck and raced in through the employee entrance. Keith wasn't sure why he was in a hurry. The lions weren't his business, he wasn't a tamer.

Lance was out of breath by the time they reached the lion pen and were relieved to see they weren't the only one's running late. Pidge arrived at the same time they had, rover in tow behind her. "What's your excuse?" Lance asked as they slowed their jog to a walk once they were close enough to the door of the building.

"Some idiot rear ended my moms car so i had to call a cab instead!" The angry teen complained. "What about you two?" She asked, pushing her glasses up her freckled nose. 

"Forgot to set my alarm, and i completely forgot. Also Keith made me some awesome breakfast so i kinda got distracted." Lance explained. Pidge nodded as they opened the door to the large building behind the lion pen. Inside was fairly large and roomy with mid sized cages holding each of the lions. Luckily the lions only had to go into the cages for their checkups, so they didn't seem to mind being in there. 

Black and Blue sat patently while Yellow and Green had a small battle through the small holes along the bottom of the cage. Red was sulking as expected. He sat in the shadows, facing away from the others, a displeased growl coming from him. 

"THERE you are! You lazy lump! I called you three times!" A female voice shouted. Keith saw Lance visibly flinch, along with Pidge. Looking up, Keith saw who he assumed was Allura. A tall female with dark skin and silvery white hair. As pretty as she was, she looked very mad. Not at him luckily.

Allura seemed to notice him and her mood changed from anger to surprise and joy. "Ah you must be Keith! It's wonderful to finally meet you! Sorry that we had to meet like this, but clearly someone wasn't being responsible-" She shifted her gaze to Pidge and Lance who bowed their heads with guilt. "Anywho, i would love to chat, be we have a bit of an issue." The white hair tyrant said to him.

"What's the issue?" Lance asked. "Green stealing Red's food again?" He asked. Pidge elbowed his gut for that statement.

"At this point i wish it was. But sadly no. It's red." She stated. "Something wrong with him." Allura grabbed Lance's wrist and dragged him to the other end of the building where the rest of the tamers and Coran stood. Hunk and Shiro waved to Keith, having already met him. Coran ignored him at the moment as he sat crouched, squinting into Red's cage.

Letting Allura talk with Lance about the situation, Keith walked a bit closer and got a better look at Red. While the lion was muscular, he seemed slimmer and much smaller up close. But that's not the only thing he noticed. While difficult to see in the dark lighting, Keith saw that the lions breathing didn't have a pattern. It was sporadic and too short for each breathe. He could almost hear the strain in the lions growl. 

"He's breathing kind of funny." Keith commented. Allura and Lance went silent behind him.

"He is? Let me see." The white haired female pushed passed him to get a better look. "He was breathing just fine this morning when we moved him. The reason i noticed something wrong was because he was nearly to weak to walk." She commented. Keith moved closer yet again as to point out the breathing, but before he could do anything, Red whirled around and snarled at them. 

At HIM.


	14. Impression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has an idea~

Keith took a hasty step back when Red snarled at him, burning ember eyes locked on him as the low growling hiss seeped from the belly of the beast. While Red was smaller up close, he was much more intimidating. Allura seemed mostly unfazed, and turn to Keith with a soft chuckle.

"I don't think he likes you very much." She stated. Keith nodded in extreme agreement. The whole time, Red stayed where he was, claws hooked against the flimsy fence of the cage that held him back. In that moment, Keith appreciated fences more than ever. "But you're right, his breathing is off."

Now that Red was in the light, the whole group could clearly see the stuttery ragged breathes as the lion growled and snarled at Keith. And the robot stared right back with a stern glare of determination. "Uh, dude, what are you doing? It looks like you're trying to blow him up with our mind or some crap." Pidge commented sarcastically. 

He did not answer, his focus unwavering as he gazed into what seemed like the embodiment of fire itself. Red stared right back, and slowly his snarls and growls grew quieter and quieter.

Soon the threats stopped all together and now they just stared. Everyone saw what he was doing and kept their mouths shut, watching in pure interest as he challenged the authority of the lion.

Shiro's lion, Black, kept glancing between Red and Keith. Mostly Keith as if he knew that the widget was challenging Red. He faintly wondered if the lions could tell he wasn't human. He sure didn't smell like a human. He lacked things like body odor, sweat, or anything that the human body naturally smelled like. He probably smelled like Lance's shampoo if anything.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the stubborn lion backed down with a chuffing noise. Red unhooked his claws from the fence and turned to sit in the darkness yet again, leaving Keith be.

"How did you do that?" Lance asked in near disbelief. Keith turned away form Reds cage to find the rest of the group staring at him in awe. Even Shiro looked impressed. 

"He's a stubborn cat so i was stubborn right back at him?" He stated as if it wasn't a big deal. In all reality i wasn't. Not to him at least. As for the others they looked at him like he just grew a mustache. No offense to Coran.

"So you beat him in a staring contest and suddenly he isn't trying to rip your throat out anymore. Neato." Pidge commented, nodding to show how impressed she was. Rover barked in agreement.

"More or less, yeah. From what I've seen, you guys are really nice to your lions and in return they're nice to you. Red however, just wants a challenge, not to be babied." The black haired robot informed the tamers. 

"That-" Shiro paused. "That actually makes sense. He was always more violent then the others, always starting fights. That whole time he was just trying to one up everyone." Reaching up with his one arm, Shiro ran his hand through his hair with a soft chuckle. The whole time, Keith noticed front he corner of his eye that Lance was squinting at him thoughtfully. He was about to ask when Coran spoke up.

"Well, as interesting as this whole situation is, we need to give the lions their check ups and we're already behind schedule." The mustached man pointed out as he tapped the watch on his wrist. "As usual we'll do Blue first because she sets a nice example." He stated. Lance nodded and tore his gave from Keith before marching over to Blue's kennel. 

Instead of sedating her like most people would have done with big cats, Lance simply flung the cage open and let her walk out on her own. Once out she hopped up onto her hind legs and captured her tamer in what seemed like a hug. "She always that friendly towards you?" Keith asked with a chuckle at the awkward hug between man and beast.

"Kind of. She's friendly towards everyone and loves being pet. Sometimes i consider her more of a house cat than she is an actual lion!" The brunette state with a laugh.

"Yellow is the same way but he prefers napping over attention." Hunk stepped over to the pen next to blue's and pointed out the second largest of the lions who was snoring rather loudly as he layed on his back, soft pink belly exposed. "Don't let him fool you though, he's a big guy who likes cuddles so if he tried to lay on you, run. You will be crushed-" The tamer informed with a half joking tone. Keith guess that Hunk probably learned from experience. 

"Green is a bit more iffy around people and usually just sticks to me. However she doesn't strike out or bite if you get to close. She'll just get up and walk away most of the time. One time she smacked Coran with her tail." Pidge filled in. Behind her Coran squinted at her and Green.

"Black? We're not really sure about. He just doesn't really seem to care." Shiro said, kneeling by his lions tiny pen. Black looked at him for a moment as if to acknowledge him before going back to looking at various parts of the room, waiting patiently to get his check up over with. 

Keith nodded. Red needed no explaining as he had just learned. Not people friendly at all with the exception of Shiro. Even that was a dangerous situation. He may not attack Shiro, but that's because Red followed Black. If Black wasn't out at the same time there was no telling what Red would do to him.

"So long story short, blue is the best." Lance declared, petting his lions face and giving her a smooch on the nose. Pidge gagged from where she stood by Hunk, who only rolled his eyes and laughed.

Once Blue had gotten her share of pats, her tamer guided her up onto the examination table Coran had set up and she laid down, already knowing the drill. The entire time she was purring away like a motorboat. "Can i pet her?" Keith asked. Lance nodded enthusiastically, as if he had been waiting for him to ask.

Keith moved from his spot near Red's pen and walked over to Blue. Curious, she turned to look at him, still purring joyfully at the attention she received. With a smile, Keith guided his hand up and let her sniff at it before he tried to touch her. Showing a hand to an animal was like asking permission to pet them. Add he never touched without permission.

Blue sniffed longer than most animals did, as she could not smell human on him. But she didn't seem to care for Blue butted her head against his palm, asking to be scratched. To which the robot happily obliged as he moved his hand and scratched at the base of her neck. The reaction was instantaneous and she melted under his hands, vibrating insistently as she purred even louder.

"Ok you weren't kidding about the friendly thing." He stated, causing Lance to laugh. When had he gotten so close? Just a moment ago Keith could of sworn he was on the other side of the table standing with Coran. Not that he minded though. When Lance was this close he could feel the warmth from the humans body that he himself lacked. It was nice.

Keith had apparently been focused on Lance long enough to not notice when Coran had finished up with Blue and Lance moved away to lead her back to the pen. At first he was confused. He usually had a fantastic awareness of his surroundings. He didn't blank out like that. Maybe it was a malfunction? A glitch in his system? It was highly unlikely as he was built with the most advanced technology and virus fighting software. A quick scan proved there was nothing wrong with him.

Before Keith could dwell too long, he moved out of the way as Yellow hopped up onto the table, massive and heavy as he flopped down. Yellow's check up took longer since he lazily pawed at the the tools Coran kept using and falling asleep when Coran needed him awake. It was kind of funny. 

Next up was Green. The others stood back as to make the lion less nervous with this many people crammed into one building. Her examination was quicker than the other two as she wasn't sleeping or trying to get pet every few seconds. Once she was finished Pidge led her back to the pen. Keith then wondered if everyone at this zoo was a little crazy because she climbed into the pen with the lioness and sat against her like a massive pillow. "It calms her down after checkups." Pidge commented, noticing Keith staring at them.

Up next was Black who went up as easily as the others. He growl occasionally when Coran prodded to much or got too close, but the sounds were nothing more than empty warnings.

Last but not least, was Red. And since they already declared he had a breathing issue, the others knew it would take longer than the others. So Hunk Pidge and Allura took their leave to head to their sections of the zoo. Opening time was half hour away so they had to get ready. Shiro was there to keep an eye on Red as the feisty lion did belong to him, and Lance stayed because he was the owner of the zoo.

Keith had went to head to the reptile house as well, but Lance stopped him. "I gotta talk with you when Red's done so you ca stick around if you want. I already asked Hunk to open our exhibits for us and Allura had Shiro's section covered." He informed. 

"What do you want to talk about?" He asked as Coran readied a sedative for the angry feline.

"That's a surprise. For now, i want you to help Coran with Red. You noticed the breathing so i figured you might be able to help him figure out what's up with him." Lance stated as Coran shot the tiny sedative from a mini pistol shaped device. Red roared and snarled at the pin prick, but after a short moment he slumped to the ground.

Lance and Shiro moved to put the unconscious lion on the table while Keith hovered around to watch them. Once Red was situated, Coran got to work. He checked the lions pulse, breathing, eyes, and other various part. "Any ideas on what it might be?" Coran questioned.

"Well, if it's his breathing, then it could be either his lungs or his trachea. I would go with lungs since it's his chest that's showing issues. That means it's either a lung infection or a ruptured tissue." He said. For a second time that day, Shiro seemed thoroughly impressed.

"Were you a surgeon or vet at some point?" He asked. Keith shook his head.

"No, just a lot of sick animals at the place i used to work." It wasn't really lie because he already knew that info. He just didn't point out that he googled that info many months ago. Moving down to the lions face, Keith looked into the mouth full of sharp teeth for blood or anything of the sort. "Ok, no blood. So it's an infection not a rupture. That and it smells like a fungal infection."

"Wait, you can SMELL the infection?" Lance asked, finding it hard to believe. Keith panicked a bit. He had forgotten that humans don't have a sense of smell like he did. Luckily Coran was on the weird and surprising side.

Taking a whiff of the lions breath, he gagged a bit. "Yup, definitely fungal. I didn't know you could smell it though. Usually i just do an MRE scan. This is much more efficient!" The red head stated. Though his hair was more pumpkin orange than reddish orange. "I'll give Allura the medicine so she can slip it into his food. We'll have to keep him separate from the others so they don't get the infection and so Green doesn't steal his food-" Coran stated, squinting at Green. The tiny lion just huffed at him.

Now finished, they returned the lions to their enclosure and moved Red to the solitary pen behind the main one. Once that was done, Lance grabbed Keith by the wrist and dragged him out of the building without any sign of warning. Once out of the building Lance led him to the main office. The two walked to a back room full of filing cabinets and he grabbed a folder with Shiro's name written on it. The tall Cuban opened the folder and pulled out a few sheet's that had Red's info on them, before laying them on the desk by Keith.

"So, are you up to being Red's tamer?" He asked.


	15. Bonding Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith isn't sure, but Pidge might become a problem.  
> Also, is it just me or does Lance keep getting closer to Keith~?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \---AUTHORS NOTE---
> 
> MY LAPTOP WAS SAVED
> 
> Thankfully my brother is a tech god and he helped me save my laptop from the evil drink known as tea. Advice for those of you who ever have bad luck like me! If you ever spill anything on your laptop or device, pull the battery out RIGHT AWAY and put it in a bag/bowl of rice. Flip your laptop upside sown and let it drain over a sink for 3 days. That's what i did, and it worked very well! My laptop has no issues!
> 
> I'm just glad that i don;t have to get a new laptop or keep my stories on hiatus longer than only a few updates.
> 
> Enjoy the new chapter!

In this moment, Keith questioned Lance's way of thinking. The zookeeper had let a stranger live with him, offered him a job despite having no training, jumped in a lion pen, and was now offering to let Keith practically on one of the most prized animals in the establishment. Not only that, but said animal was one of the most dangerous ones.

He was built for simple assistance and basic labor, not having a giant pet cat. How did he even end up in this situation? 

"You're telling me, that you want me to tame Red?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Lance nodded enthusiastically in response. It seemed Lance was always in a good mood. "Why?"

"Well for starters, you're the first person who got him to back down. Not even Shiro could do that if he tried." Lance rolled his eyes in though of an old memory. "And he has tried. Many times." The brunette chuckled a bit. "Long story short, I would like you to at least try it. It would really help Shiro especially. As the owner of this zoo and the lions, I don't feel that Shiro is fully safe taming TWO lions with his, y'know....situation." An arm was raised to make a point that Shiro was missing one. 

"I've never worked on hand with predator species, let alone a lion." Keith pointed out.

"I can teach you the basics. Blue and I can show you how it's done~" Lance replied with a smirk, obviously showing that he just wanted another chance to show off. 

"What about the others? The lion shows are a team thing. I can't just barge in on that." Keith rubbed his own arm awkwardly, looking away from Lance. He was a stranger, and outsider. Accepting the offer was giving himself the opportunity to ruin something that was fine the way it was. Why take the risk when Shiro was handling Red and Black on his own just fine?

"You could get to know them easily. Trust me, they really wanted to meet you. And Pidge told me that she already thinks you're cool." Looking up, Keith raised his eyebrow yet again.

"How? She just met me the other day and we spoke for what, five seconds?" Keith did the math and found their exact converse time was only 4.3721 seconds, but it was close enough to five. 

"I don't really know. She's more of a tech person than a people person. Maybe she took a liking to you because you helped save Rover." Lance stated nonchalantly. 

If Keith had a heart, it would have skipped a beat. The info clicked into place like two puzzle pieces. The reason he though Pidge looked familiar, and the fact that she likes technology (According to Lance anyways). Looking through his old data bases to be sure, Keith pulled up his designers file. Samuel Holt. His file revealed that he had two children. Matthew Holt and Katelyn Holt. And Katelyn looked just like Pidge. Maybe Pidge was a nickname, but there was no doubt that it was her.

The daughter of his designer and maker knew who he was. The question that burned in his database, however, did she know what he was?

"Uh, hello? Earth to Keith? You still with me buddy?" Lance asked, waving his hand in front of Keiths violet eyes, successfully pulling Keith from his void of thought.

"Y-yeah, of course. Just got lost in thought. Sorry." He apologized quickly, avoiding eye contact.

Lance thankfully didn't notice. "Anywho, i was asking if you wanted to go out around the city or something with the rest of the gang so you can properly meet everyone and get to know them." He offered with a shrug. "I would suggest bowling, but you know, Shiro-" a cough was fakes to cover up the bad arm joke that was nearly made.

"I guess so." Keith stated. "I've only been in this city for a week and I've only seen the zoo and the streets when it's raining." The small sarcastic reply mustered a small laugh from the taller of the two. "Maybe grand tour of the neighborhood wouldn't be a bad idea."

His answer had apparently been the correct one, as Lance's face lit of with a tidal wave of a smile. "Awesome! After work i'll grab the others and we can all head out for dinner! There's this Chinese place down the road that had awesome takeout." Out of habit, Keith stored the file of this moments memory in a special folder. The folder in his system held his favorite moments. Most were of Lance, while the rest were of the animals around the zoo. 

A small beeping noise emitted form Lance's pocket, interrupting them. "Crap we have to open up, i didn't realize it was that late already!" The Cuban shut off the alarm and looked out the window of the office. Thankfully Hunk had his back and had opened up the main gate already so people could come in. "Well, gotta fly. Meet me at the front gate when works over alright?" He asked, half walking half jogging to the door. "And consider the taming thing with Red!"

"You got it." Keith replied, following. Lance flashed another one of those precious smiles at him before dashing to his section of the zoo. Keith lingered for a moment longer, going over the conversation once more. Pidge might become a problem.

-7:00 p.m-

The day went rather smooth and uneventful. The animals behaved when Keith got them out to hold, a few small kids had to be reminded to not tap on the class, and some teenagers were goofing around. Other than that, the day felt slow. Usually Keith would have been thinking about Lance or the hippo's, but today all he could think about was the fact that Pidge was the daughter of the man who modeled and made him. Did she know that Keith was a machine? A Widget? 

If the short female knew it, she didn't seem to show it. Keith would have to be extra careful around her to make sure she didn't find out. He didn't even know why he was hiding the fact that he wasn't human. For now, he felt obligated to pretend to be one for as long as he could. 

Once Keith finished cleaning up the reptile house and feeding the hippo's, the pretend human made his way to the front gate. Lance Hunk and Shiro were already there, waiting as they chatted among one another. Allura and Coran could be seen off in the parking lot, cleaning up trash from the empty lot. People were so careless with their garbage sometimes. There trashcans and every 20 feet. Was it that hard to throw stuff away?

Ignoring that thought for now, Keith approached the group with a smile and a wave. Shiro waved back with his one arm and Hunk returned the smile. Keiths smile wavered a bit when he saw Rover sitting beside the darker skinned male. The dog borked at him in greeting. But if the dog was there, then where was-?

"Hello!" A voice came from behind him, causing Keith to jump and let out a noise of surprise. Whirling around with wide eyes, he saw Pidge standing there. She had changed form her work clothes already and was wearing a white shirt with green sleeves that had bold teal letters that read 'The aliens believe in you too.' on the front of it with a tiny green alien face above it. 

"Oh hey Pidge." Hunk greeted casually, as if she hadn't just appeared out of the blue. Even with his sensor tech she had snuck up on him. 

Pidge moved from behind him and moved to stand somewhat beside him instead. "Sorry about scaring ya. It's how i greet people." The auburn haired teen said to him. Keith relaxed, but only a bit. She was still a threat to his secret. 

"You should have been there when she met Lance. Gave the poor guy a heart attack." Shiro pointed out, ruffling the shorter girls hair. Compered to Shiro, Pidge looked much smaller than she actually was. She still scared him though. At this point he was considering if he was more scared of her than he was of the lions.

Soon Allura and Coran joined them. Before Lance could speak up about the hang out plan, Coran stepped forward. "As much as i would love to hang out with you all and get to know our new fellow employee, i am needed elsewhere." The mustached adult stated, almost sadly. "I received a call that cannot be ignored. Until next time!" Not giving anyone a chance to reply, Coran scuttled away, leaving everyone slightly confused.

"Ok then?" Lance spoke, breaking the awkward silence that had settled. "Now that everyone that's available is here, let's lay out the plan." He stated, cracking his knuckles. "First, dinner. Everyone in agreement on Chinese takeout?" He asked. The group, including Keith, all nodded. 

"I would prefer olive garden, but the restaurant you're referring too has a lovely variety in soups that i quite like." Allura pointed out. Lance shrugged, taking the answer as a yes.

"After dinner, what are we wanting to do for fun?" He asked. Pidge's eyes flew open wide at the same time as Hunks.

"ARCADE!" They duo shouted in perfect unison. Shiro and Allura rolled their eyes and Lance laughed. 

"I had a feeling that would be the answer. Shiro, Allura, Keith? You three down for the arcade?" The brunette asked. Shiro and Allura nodded and Keith gave a thumbs up. This caused Pidge to go ecstatic and high five one another.

Shiro leaned closer to Keith. "Those two can grind tickets like no tomorrow. It's scary how good they are those games." He said with a light chuckle. Keith nodded. While he had never played arcade games, the widget could probably cheat and just have the machine give him free tickets. As a high tech computer, he could hack into nearly anything. Even old arcade games if he wanted to. Which he did, now.

"Well, now that that's settled, lets head out! Shiro, you cool with taking your van?" Lance asked. The amputee nodded and pulled out his own set of keys.

"Dibs on shotgun!" Pidge screeched, running into the parking lot. Lance looked baffled but started chasing her.

"You have to be at the van to call shotgun!" Despite being shorter, Pidge was much much faster than the long legged male. Another reason to be scared of her. Great. 

"Well, i'm in heels so i'm not running." Allura pointed out. She started waking, making sure click her shimmering shoes against the pavement to make a point. Hunk quickly locked up the main gate before he, Shiro, and Keith followed Allura at a walking pace. While Allura was intimidating, she was at the same time very friendly and seemed like the kind of person to look up to. Similar to Shiro.

Side by side the four of them made it to the van. Pidge was on Lance's back while the taller of the two tried getting the in passenger side door, failing miserably.

In the end Allura ended up claiming shotgun. Pidge and Lance didn't argue with the white haired tyrant. Instead Pidge sat with Hunk in the middle seats, while Lance seemed all too happy to claim the backseat with Keith.

And Keith didn't mind that at all.


	16. Fun and Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finds out more about his new friends!

        Though the drive was short, Keith realized that it was far from quiet. The whole time Pidge and Lance were singing along to the radio while Hunk Shiro and Allura chatted among themselves the best they could with the singing duo. Preferring to stay quiet, Keith just watched out the window watching as the building and streets passed by. Lance had tried getting him to join in on a few songs, but the widget kindly declined each time.

        Luckily for him, just before the couple of mischief makers could start another song Shiro pulled the van into a tightly packed parking lot. The plus side to Shiro missing an arm, he had handicap parking perk to allow them front row parking spots. Once the minivan was situated, Shiro turned the van off and unlocked the doors. One by one the gang of animal keepers filed out of the vehicle and stood by the van.

        Once everyone was ready, Shiro locked up the van and the six of them walked into the run down Chinese restaurant. The moment Keith walked in behind Lance and the others, he was hit with a wave of different varieties of smells. Some of them were familiar scents from many months ago when he was still working for Violet. Despite being the daughter of a millionaire, Chinese take out and leftovers were her most common and favorite meals.

        Shaking the though of Violet from his thought, Keith focused on just how many people were cramped into the small food joint. Feeling a spike of what felt similar to fear, Keith tucked his arms close to his chest and stood as close to Lance as he could without actually touching him. Little did he know that Lance noticed it, and said nothing about it as to let Keith continue. 

        Shiro being the dad friend of the group, found them all a table large enough to fit them. Shiro Hunk and Lance took one side while Pidge Keith and Allura sat at the other. Disdain washed over the Widget when Pidge plopped down right beside him, trapping him between the wall and her short self. Not wanting to seem rude, he stayed put. Lance eased his discomfort a bit when the tall brunette claimed the seat across the short table and bumped their feet together as if saying hello. 

        Grateful for the distraction, Keith looked up at Lance with a kind smile. The human returned it with a bright smile of his own, and Keith felt that familiar and welcoming warm feeling in his chest. He wanted to melt in that feeling for as long as he could.

        A waiter arrived and passed out menu's to each of them before taking their drink orders. Shiro and Allura went with water while Hunk and Pidge got matching drinks of root beer. Lance surprised Keith yet again with his weirdness when he asked for something called a birds nest drink. 

        "Dude, you do realize that the drink you got has like, bird spit or something like that in it?" Pidge asked, cringing as she took a sip from her own drink once the waiter returned.

        "Yeah, but it's really good for skin and for my liver. I'm going to outlive all of you guys because of stuff like this." Lance replied sarcastically as he took a drink from the weird bubbly drink. Keith raised an eyebrow, yet said nothing.

        "I drink water and i still have clearer skin than you ever will." Allura replied. Shiro gave her a high five and Lance's smirk dropped to shock and offense.

        "While i admit that you are more pretty than any person in existence, i refuse to admit that i myself and NOT pretty. I am drop dead gorgeous, princess. Thanks to drinks like this." Setting his drink down, Lance brought his smirk back on.

        "Really? If you're so gorgeous than why did Nyma dump you?" Pidge retorted with a devilish smirk of her own. The whole time, Keith only watched the whole scenario play out. It was rather amusing to watch. 

        "Hey, that wasn't because of looks. We just didn't fit alright?" Lance argued, a tad bit of seriousness seeping into his usually playful tone. Pidge did not noticed and kept pushing.

        "Fit? Nah you two were prefect other than the fact that you hated her friend. Who is actually her boyfriend now." At Pidge's words Lance seemed to do a double take. By now Keith had absolutely no idea what was going on.

        "Wait you mean that jerk from high school?" Hunk asked, stepping into the conversation. Pidge answered him with a nod as she took another sip of her drink. "Ew, gross. What does she even see in that guy? He was a bully and his nose looked weird." Hunk stated.

        "Now now guys calm down, i know you didn't like him but that's just mean. Making fun of his nose is just lowering yourself to his level." Shiro held the menu with his one arm as he cast a sideways glance at them. "Even if he could sink the titanic with it, it's still not nice to point it out." Lance and Pidge took a moment to react before bursting out into laughter. 

        Soon their waiter returned to take their orders, but ended up having to wait for the duo of laughing teens to calm down from Shiro's joke. Keith thought to himself that maybe, just maybe, he could get used to a group of people like this.

\---a few hours later---

        Once their food was finished and their leftovers taken care of, the group of six piled back into Shiro's van. Squished into their original seats, Keith felt a bit more at ease. During their meal the group had all chatted casually and Keith learned a great deal about each of the animal caretakers he worked with. Shiro, as intimidating as he was, was the ultimate dad friend of the group and was by far the kindest of them right behind Hunk. Hunk was master cook and hug expert and was the greatest when it came to impressing the children at the zoo. Pidge was the tech junkie of the group and likes to build and program computers in her free time. When Keith asked, she mentioned that she got all of her computer parts from her dad instead of buying them. 

        Allura spoke for both herself and Coran. The mustached maniac was the crazy uncle, always getting himself into ridiculous situations that were nearly always laughable. And yet he was also very wise when it came down to it. Allura was a little bit of everything. Kind, smart, pretty, and very, very intimidating. When it got down to it, she was the one who dealt with most of the dirty work such as heavy lifting. She was also a grade A medic for when any of her team got hurt. Also, her love for animals was very evident in the fact that she was a vegetarian.

        And Lance. Lance was special, it seemed. He was adaptable. Mainly he was goofball, but his lighthearted attitude always spread to those around him, melting away any tension that had been there to begin with. Lance, Keith came to realize, was the main cause of the warmth he felt in his chest from time to time. Comforting and gentle.

        But Keith himself, was the loner. The outcast. The one with a secret that he would not tell anyone. He had no story to tell, no past life experiences outside of what his secret held. So he remained silent.

        Silence was out the window, however, when they arrived to the arcade that Hunk and Pidge had been so pumped about. The noise level was far above that of the crowded van and the run down restaurant combined. Loud music blared from several different speakers and videos games, and seemingly hundreds of people. Unlike the restaurant, the arcade was new, well kept and far more popular. 

        "Ok you all know the drill." Lance stated. "Pidge, you're on token duty while Hunk and I grind for tickets. Shiro, Allura, you two find the games that aren't rigged. Keith, since you don't know the drill, stick with me and i'll explain." Before Keith had even a short moment to speak up and say that he hadn't even heard half the plan, Lance grabbed his had and pulled him into a random direction. Pidge vanished off somewhere in the crowded chaos while Shiro and Allura went off to look for rigged games so they knew which ones to avoid later. 

        Once Lance and Hunk got to a quieter location where a few old unused classic arcade games sat, Lance released Keiths hand and stood beside Hunk. "Ok, before we get into the fun part, let me explain the fun little routine I put together to get maximum ticket amount~" The Cuban said as he cracked his knuckles with a smirk. Hunk quietly corrected 'I' to 'we' which Lance promptly ignored. 

        "I thought you guys just came here to have fun? It sounds like you're just working." Keith pointed out, looking around nervously at the amount of people in the colorfully lit building. 

        "Oh it is fun! It might not seem like it at first, but it is far better than getting frustrated at rigged games for 3 hours. I did that the first time i came to this arcade and lost like, 50 dollars on one game." Hunk pointed out. "Not good times-"

        "I guess that makes sense. By why not just go and buy this stuff at a dollar store? It's much cheaper, faster, and quite frankly, less noisy." The widget pointed it out as if it was the most obvious solution in the world. And to him, it was.

        "Yeah, but where's the fun in that! Money can't but happiness buddy. Now, where the heck is Pidge? We can't play anything until she gets the tokens." Lance looked away from Keith for a moment to peek between the video games and such to look for the shortest member of the gang. "Her job is to make sure everyone has token at all times. We have a card dedicated to this arcade that has a couple hundred dollars on it just for this occasion. We take our ticket grinding very seriously." He explained.

        As if summoned, the gremlin herself popped out from behind an old pac-man machine with a plastic arcade bag full of golden colored coins. "You rang?" She said with a smirk. Hunk gratefully took the coins with a nod. "Shiro and Allura have their coins already and have already found several rigged games. Avoid the sports section, everything over there is bugged." Pidge notified.

        "You got it!" Lance exclaimed. "Now, the real fun begins." Hunk and and Pidge ran off in their own directions while Keith was left in Lance. Keith wasn't sure if he was paranoid or not, but he could have sworn that Pidge cast a second glance back at him. 

        Lance took his hand yet again (Keith took note that Lance's hands were really warm) and led the Widget through the packed arcade. As they zipped through the mass of gamers, Keith realized the building was far larger than he originally thought. It had several different rooms and a vast variety in games. One of the rooms had board games for adults that came with children that wanted to avoid the noise.

        They stopped once Lance reached a game that Keith knew right off the bat without even having played it before. It was a two player game that towered over the both of them with a short line of people eagerly awaiting their turn. 

        "So, you up for a dance mullet?" Lance asked as he turned to Keith with a challenging smirk. And Keith was not going to back down from a fight like that. In front of the both of them stood the classic 'Dance Dance Revolution'. 

        "For one, it's not a mullet." The widget gave his best devilish smile humanly possible. "For two, bring it on."


	17. Comparison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith was wrong about Pidge, and he see's another Widget!

\---Art by me!---

 

By the time Lance and Keith had gone threw their entire bag of coins, the duo was tied in their little dance contest. Pidge later found them when Lance had screeched about needing more coins. The poor boy had begged Pidge to give him more coins to break the tie, but the auburn haired teen didn't want him to waste anymore of the coin money. In the end she gave a handful of coins to Keith.

        "Don't let him play anymore dance games. They don't give enough tickets to be worth it. Try the claw games in the back. They have bonus tickets." Pidge explained. Keith nodded to the order he was given. Lance sulked beside him as the shorter member of the group wandered off to find Hunk. Keith watched her leave, closely this time and was relieved to find that she hadn't been watching him. Maybe he was just being paranoid and only imagined that she was watching. 

        Once the girl was out of sight, Lance made a dive for the coins. Seeing him jump, Keith moved the coins to his other hand. "Nope, no more dance dance revolution." Keith stated. Lance only whirled around and made another leap.

        "I just need one more point to beat you, mullet!" The brunette said with a devilish grin. "Come on please?" He begged. Little did he know that Keith refused to break the order given to him by Pidge. As a Widget he wasn't allowed to. He couldn't despite the fact that he really really wanted to just so he himself could beat Lance at his own contest.

        "No, let's just head over to the claw machine's. You said we came here for fun and tickets, not a dance off." Keith stated, offering a smile. The smile wasn't a real one, but he didn't want to constantly have a look of no emotion on his face. "Besides, we could see who get's more prizes than the other." He challenged. If Lance wanted to rival him, then so be it. But the robot would not let him win easily.

        "Oh it's on buddy boy. Race you to the claw machines!" Not even giving Keith a chance, the Cuban's feet were in motion as he bolted behind the shorter male. Feeling a rush through his body like a jolt of electricity (It might have been just that), Keith was quick to turn and chase after his friend. Well, he liked to think that he was Lance's friend.

        To no one's surprise, Keith had made it there first. Lance had been oh so helpful and ran right into one of those hanging boxing games. Keith had stopped to make sure the boy was alright, but both were back into the little race immediately.

        "You cheated-" Lance accused, laughing while pointing at Keith, then to the punching game far behind them.

        "And that was my fault....how?" Lance's accusation didn't even make sense to Keith. And if a highly intelligent robot didn't know what he meant, then Lance definitely needed better comebacks than that.

        "I don't know. Magic or something." Lance grumbled angrily. He didn't look very angry though. It was a fake anger to mask the fact that he was trying not be embarrassed or laugh. 

        "Magic is a chuck of baloney." Pidge stated. Keith let out a shriek of surprise when the girl suddenly appeared behind him. She stood there with sweater pockets chuck full of tickets and a soft drink in her hands.

        "Why do you keep doing that!?" Keith asked with wide eyes. The fact that she could sneak up on him both worried him and freaked him out. He was a Widget, he should have been able to hear her coming. He even had scanners and sensors  to tell when things or people were close to him. She showed up on neither.

        And now that he was aware of it, she was like a ghost to him. Even now that he knew she was there the small human girl did not show up on his scanner. He his eyes were shut, he wouldn't know she was there. How? He couldn't even get a heat signature from her.

        "Like i said, it's how i greet people. Also the third times a charm so be prepared for the third time. I might be on the ceiling." Pidge took a sip from her drink casually. Keith squinted at her a bit, trying the scanners again with no success.

        "She did that to me one time and i almost broke the tank i was cleaning. How she got on the roof of the workshop, i'll never know." lance stated. Keith gave up on trying to figure out what the deal with Pidge was because it was probably getting weird with him staring at her. Even weirder, she started right back with a squint of her own as if challenging him. Not wanting to accept that challenge, he backed off and looked away.

        "So what are you losers up too?" To answer Pidge's question, Lance gestured to the claw machines. "Ah ok. Avoid the one's with shoes. They're all buggy. Try the one with the watches in it. I win almost every time." Taking another gulp from her drink, Pidge wandered over to one of the claw machines with stuffed animals and got to work.

        The two boys looked at her more a moment before shrugging. Trusting that Lance wouldn't run for dancing again, they split the coins and went to separate machines. Never having used a claw machine before, Keith had to look up several videos to know what he was doing. The machine in front of him was one of the one's where you push a button and try to get the key on then end into a small opening to push the prize down. As it turns out, the machine here were up to date and had computer chips in them Chips that could be hacked. And that meant he didn't even have to play.

        It was technically cheating, but hey, if it got him more prizes than Lance it was a win either way. 

        He made sure that no one was looking before Keith gently placed his hand near the coin slot on the claw machine. A small hum started in his systems as Keiths eyes glowed a dull shade of purple. Using his own programming, Keith connected to the chip in the claw machine and took the reigns on the controls. Using only his thoughts, Keith maneuvered the machines arm right to one of the top prizes that gave him an automatic thousand tickets, and a free tee shirt.

        With a victorious chuckled, Keith looked over to Lance, who was struggling to grab a pink stuffed bunny. "Hey Lance!" He hollered over the loud arcade music. Lance looked over to him, and in a split second the brunette went from curious to shocked. The noise Lance made was almost hilarious.

        "Dude, you got that on the first try?" Pidge asked, walking over and watching as the line of tickets were slowly spit out of the machine. She nodded with raised eyebrows. "Impressive. I'm wondering how though considering that the prize you got was one of the rigged ones." She pointed out, looking at him with a look in her eyes that he could not define.

        Keith merely shrugged. He couldn't lie so he instead kept his mouth shut. There was no way to answer her without saying that he hacked the machine himself. 

        Pidge squatted and grabbed the shirt he had won from the prize bin. It had a kitten wearing a space helmet printed on the front of it, and was far too small for Keith or Lance to wear. "Can i have it?" She asked. Keith nodded and she smiled. "Thanks! I'm going to go change into i right now so, see you losers later!" Without another word Pidge zoomed away faster than Keith though someone so short could possibly ever move.

        "You know, she scares me." Keith admits to Lance once they're alone again. The boy simply shrugged and went back to his claw game. Keith moved to grab his tickets as he thought more about Pidge. If this kept up she would find out what he was for sure. 

        The two stuck around the claw machines for another half hour before Shiro rounded them all up for a snack break. The small part of the group joined up with the others at a large table in the restaurant part of the arcade. Since they had already had dinner only an hour ago, Allura had ordered some fries and milkshakes for everyone. All they had to do was wait.

        Pidge was already there in her new shirt, every inch of her pants pocket filled to the brim with tickets with a look of smug pride on her face, Hunk and Shiro had roughly the same amount while Allura's ticket count looked like it could rival even Pidge. 

        "Ha! I win this time!" Pidge declared.

        "Whaaaat no, how many do you have?" Hunk argued. Pidge smirked.

        "13,469." Man, Keith was starting to wonder if she hacked the machines too. He had only gotten 5,270. Even combined with Lance's 1,200 they were no where near Pidge's amount. 

        "Food's here!" Shiro announced, taking his seat beside Allura whereas Lance and Keith plopped down beside one another. Once he was comfy, Keith looked up to the waiter that had just reached their table. And his smile dropped.

        It was another widget. There was no mistake. He could see in the way it walked with stiff unnatural movements, it's expressionless face and dull steel grey eyes. The tray of milkshakes it held barley shook as if it wasn't moving at all. And Keith wondered, did he look like that?

        Pidge seemed to have noticed too, and her face lit up like a firework. "ohmygoshican'tbeleivethis." She spouted out. "They still sell that model?!" Pidge was out of her seat in a split second to examine the humanoid robot. It was made to appear female and wore plain jeans with a shirt and an apron with the arcade logo on it.

        A smile appeared on it's face that seemed all too creepy. "Hi! Is there anything i can help you with?" It asked. The voice sounded distance and warbled, and very disoriented. 

        Keith watched as Pidge questioned the robot, curious about every detail right down to the programming. That made him even more wary of her. Seeming to notice his discomfort, Lance leaned closer to him to talk.

        "This happens every time she see's a Widget. There aren't many in this end of town and with her being a tech expert, it's like seeing a celebrity." He explained. Keith nodded in understanding at the statement. "She actually joined in on a petition to keep them from being weaponized."

        "Weaponized?" Keith asked, confused. Widgets weren't used in the military. They were far more expensive than human soldiers for one, and Widgets were a trademark good that couldn't be copied. They were built to serve as industry workers, home assistance, and as proved just now, waiters and such. They could even be used as surgeons with how well they preformed.

        "Yeah, there's this big group, galra co or something like that. They're trying to take over the company and use them as soldiers instead. Pidge told me that it's just wrong to weaponize a creation that was made to work with people. Not kill them." Allura said from across the table.

        And suddenly he felt bad for judging Pidge as he had. Sure, she was a risk to his secret, but the girl was on his side technically speaking. She appreciated his kind and didn't take them for granted.

        His thoughts were cut short as the waitress were cut short as it placed the milkshakes and fries down on the table. Content for now and hungry for fries, Pidge finally sat down and left the Widget alone. It waked away, same stiff movements as before. When he turned back to look away, he then noticed Pidge squinting at him thoughtfully. The moment he locked eyes with her, she quickly looked away and started drinking her shake.

        And in that moment Keith realized. She knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And things start to pick up~


	18. Now She Knows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pigeon knows all. Also stuffed animals!

 

\---Art credit to @ohnogane on instagram!---

 

        With the knew found knowledge of what Pidge knew heavy on his shoulders, Keith felt as if the rest of the night passed by far slower than it should have. He would occasionally look up from whatever he was doing at the time to glance in Pidge's direction only to see her look away from him and pretend that she never looked in the first place. She was watching him, and he was watching her. 

        Lance had even noticed at one point and made a joke about them being in a staring contest or something, to which Keith had quickly made a joke about wanting his t shirt back as a cover up story. It wasn't entirely a lie, it was a cool shirt. Cats and aliens were awesome. Luckily Lance took the excuse and left him be.

        That didn't mean he entirely left him alone, however. Lance hovered around him and followed Keith wherever he went. Which was good for the Widget seeing as Lance was the only one he really knew that well. He liked being near Lance and it seemed as if Lance like being near him as well.

        So it was quiet relief when it was time for everyone to head home for the night. Well, morning. It was a little passed midnight when Shiro reminded Pidge that she still had classes in the morning.  She complained, of course, until she yawned mid-sentence and proved herself wrong. So in the end everyone decided to call it a night and piled back into the van. Not before they gathered their prized of course.

        Sitting in the backseat with Lance yet again, Keith held a pink stuffed hippo to his chest. Lance had used almost all of his tickets to get the pillow sized toy for him. Keith had refused at first, saying that Lance had earned it and not him, but one look from Allura had him accepting the plush gift. 

        The Widget gazed out of van window, watching as the street lamps and buildings faded by. He didn't pay attention however. Instead he replayed him memories of hanging out with everyone today. Especially Lance. It gave him that warm feeling in his chest that the robot had taken a liking to. At first he had been scared of the feeling for two reasons. One being that he had no idea what it was or if it was supposed to be there, and two being that it felt similar to what he had felt for Violet.

        His thoughts and memory replaying were cut short as the van stopped in the zoo parking lot.

        "I would just drive all of you home, but that would take far too long, and you all have your own vehicles here." Shiro pointed out. He unlocked the doors and everyone filed out of the large van. All except for Pidge who was fast asleep and drooling all over her seat. Getting over his slight fear for the human girl, Keith snapped a quick picture to his database. What for, he didn't know. 

        "I'll get her. She lives on the same street as me so i can give her a ride to work tomorrow." Allura hopped out of the passenger seat and walked over to gather the snoring child into her arms. Not only was Allura intimidating to Keith, but she was very strong as it seemed when she easily lifted Pidge from the seat. 

        Once they were out of the way Hunk hopped out as well, followed by Keith and Lance. "Wait, how does she work here and go to school?" Keith asked curiously. He hadn't though of that until now.

        "Pidge has online college classes that she does before and after work." Lance answered as they walked back to the truck. Hunk Shiro and Allura waved and said goodnight to the duo as they walked away.

        "And she's how old?" Keith asked. He already knew since he had looked at her profile the other day but he didn't want to seem like a creep for already knowing. 

        "She is 16 and a half. Yes, shocking, i know. But her dad is what you would call one of those 'friends in high places' and is also a tech genius. Therefore making her a tech genius as well. That's why she flipped out when she realized our waiter was one of those widgets that her dad makes." 

        They arrived to the old blue pickup truck and hopped in. Once buckled in, Keith decided to risk one question.

        "So, what's your opinion?" He asked as Lance started the truck. The deep rumbling of the engine filled the silence.

        "On what?"

        "Widgets. What's your view on them?" Keith turned to look at the brunette, judging his reaction. Lance's eyebrow's furrowed in confusion for a moment.

        "Well, I think they're pretty cool. They're a good idea too. A bit expensive though in my opinion." He said with a light chuckle. 

        "You don't think they're, i don't know, creepy?" Keith pushed. He knew he should stop asking, but the Widget wanted to know what Lance thought of his kind. 

        "What do you mean? How would they be creepy?" Lance questioned. Keith turned away and bit his lip, gazing out the window yet again as Lance pulled the truck from the parking lot and onto the road. 

        "Well, they're machines." He flinched a bit when he almost said 'we' instead of 'they'. Too close. Way too close. "They're computers that look like people. And a lot of people can't tell the difference between them and a human. You don't find that weird?" Keith asked. 

        And yet again, Lance filled him with relief. "No not really. They might not be human, but they aren't bothering me in anyway. They're just doing what they're told. And who am i to judge them for that?" An almost fond smile passed over Lance's face as he drove. Keith wondered exactly what he was smiling about. "What about you? Do you think Widgets are weird?"

        "Not really. Like Pidge, i can tell Widgets from humans, but i don't really mind that they're there." The words came out easier than Keith thought they would. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the entire truth either. To him it was the humans that were the weird one's. Always changing, unpredictable, and.....unique. Every human was different while every Widget was the same. Except for himself of course. But despite being painfully obvious that he was different, Keith did not know what made him any different.

        Lance hummed in acknowledgment to his answer as they pulled into the driveway of his house. The duo climbed out of the truck and walked up the steps and into the house. With a stretch, Lance tossed the keys onto a shelf by the door and started walking to his room.

        "Well, i had fun. Thanks for agreeing to hang out with everyone today!" He said with a smile. The warmth spread from Keiths chest all the way up to his face and formed into a smile. A real one.

        "I had fun too. Goodnight." The Widget replied. Lance smiled back at him and walked off to his room. Keith did the same and went into the guest room that he had been staying in. Once there he didn't bother changing and instead just flopped on the bed. Thankfully his battery was still over half charge so he didn't yet need to sabotage one of the wall outlets.

        But that was farthest from his mind when he realized what was happening. Whatever he had felt for violet nearly a month ago he was starting to feel for Lance. 

\---The next day---

        Lost in his thoughts throughout the night, Keith hadn't though to make breakfast again so instead him and Lance had a quick breakfast of toast and coffee. Remembering Keith first night here Lance had gladly made him a cup of hot cocoa instead. Once that was finished they went back to their rooms to change and then headed out to the truck to head to work for the day.

        "I'll talk to the rest of the group about you and Red. You still up for that?" Lance asked as they walked through the front gate.

        "Yeah, i'll give it a shot." Keith replied. Honestly he didn't even know why he would say yes to something like lion taming. But it's not like he had anything else to do so why the heck not.

        "Awesome! Well, i'll see you after work. Bye!" Running off, Lance headed to tend to his own section of the zoo and left Keith to go to his section. 

        Once there, Keith headed out back to get crickets for the reptiles. But to his surprise, the bucket he was supposed to use was gone. Walking to the back door of the reptile house, he found that the door had already been unlocked and was hanging open. "What the...." Keith muttered to himself. With a squint he pushed the door open to find all of the lights on as well. Had someone opened up for him?

        All of the reptiles looked to have been fed already and the floor swept. Towards the other end of the room, the cricket bucket lay empty on it's side. Maybe it had been Hunk? He seemed like the kind of person to do nice things like that randomly. Shiro would have been to busy seeing as his animals had disabilities and needed to be taken care of first. Allura and Coran were busy with the food and animal and he had just seen Lance a moment ago.

        And that left one option. 

        Trying his sensors once more, Keith was surprised to find that Pidge actually showed up for once. And to his relief she was human. But on the downside, she was on top of on of the shelves right behind him.

        Turning around to look, he found that his conclusion was right. 

        "Hello." She greeted simply from her perch on the shelf a good 10 feet above the floor. 

        "Are you even allowed to be up there?" Keith asked, trying to avoid the painstakingly obvious reason she was here. It was clear he wasn't the only one who remembered last night. 

        "Not really, but Lance knows i climb things so i get away with it. Besides, what he doesn't know won't hurt him." At the last sentence her amber colored eyes locked onto him as she squinted. "In most cases anyways."

        He knew what the girl was referring too, but stayed quiet as he moved to grab the abandoned bucket. Behind him a thud could be heard as Pidge jumped down from the shelf and landed on the floor with practiced ease. 

        "So, does he know?" Pidge asked, slowly walking closer to him. Now that he could tell exactly where she was, the Widget was nervous. Because now she was only a few meters behind him. 

        "Does who know what?" Answering with a question was the best way to avoid direct answers. Widgets could not lie, but he sure as hell didn't want to tell the truth. Unfortunately for him, Pidge knew this and knew how to tie off all of the loopholes. No wonder she got college classes so early. This girl human was a genius. Scary smart.

        "Answer my question." She ordered, followed by the question. "Does Lance know what you are?"

        And there it was. He couldn't do anything about it now. The only thing he could do thanks to the rules of robotics was answer her with the truth.

        "N-no........" He answered quietly with his head hanging. Turning a bit to look over his shoulder at Pidge, he watched her give a small nod as if confirming what she had heard. 

        "Why?" Pidge asked, almost curiously. She was taking this a lot better than he thought the human girl would. The Widget had expected her to be mad for hiding what he was this whole time.

        "It's.... it's a long story." And it really was. "But please don't tell him." Turning to face her, Keith saw that she looked far from mad, but instead looked deep in thought.

        "Don't worry. That's not my secret to tell. But what i do want is your to to tell me what this 'long story' is. There's gotta be a good reason why such a top rated high tech service Widget like yourself is pretending to be a human and working at a place like this." And she smiled. Not a smirk, but a genuine friendly smile. 

        "You're taking this a lot better than what i thought you would." Keith pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

        A shrug was her answer. "What can i say? I'm a tech junkie. I want to know everything i can about technology and i am really curious about you. And i can't exactly ask you stuff if your original owner finds out your here and tries towing you off."


	19. Lion Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We dive a bit more into what Keith will be doing with Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by me and it's the scene from the last chapter where Pidge reveals that she knows what Keith is!

After a few more minutes of Pidge reassuring Keith that she would not tell anyone of his little secret, they went their separate ways to work. But under one condition that favored her greatly. Using that brain if hers yet again she used her now massive advantage to talk Keith into 'Hanging out' with her more often, which actually meant 'I love technology so let me study you religiously' in her book. But he agreed as to keep her mouth shut. The Widget would rather be poked and prodded at then let anyone (Especially Lance) know what he was.

Since it was Tuesday, the day was rather uneventful as people were either at work or at school. Which was good. It gave Keith time to think about a lot of things. Maybe Pidge could help him. She was the daughter of the very person who designed and built him. Maybe she could figure out what was wrong with him, why Keith felt things that he shouldn't. Maybe Pidge could even help him get rid of the feelings.

While some of them were good feelings, most of them were bad and painful. Fear was the most painful and his least favorite as every time he thought of violet, that was the one thing he felt aside from the regret of ever opening his mouth to her.

"Yo! Keith, buddy!" A voice rang through the reptile house while the Widget was in the middle of sweeping, causing him to drop the broom with a startled jump. Turning around, Keith relaxed when he saw it was only Lance standing there in the open doorway. 

The boy had a blinding smile on his face and looked out of breath as if he had run a mile. Even without his scanners Keith could tell the young adults heart rate was up and he was far our of breath. "Uhm, are you....ok?" Keith asked cautiously, picking up the fallen broom. He looked around to see if anyone of the zoo attendees was watching them, to find that he had been so lost in thought that everyone had left without him noticing. It was still hours before closing time, where did everyone go?

"Great! So i closed up the zoo early today. Not a lot of people were coming in today anyways and i figured it was a good time to start your training with Red! The medicine we gave him worked and he's all better now. Oh and Shiro's going to be there too." Lance blurted out. Despite having short hair, half of the messy brown locks managed to hang in his face, making him look like a madman with the wild grin his lips held. Even a month after meeting him Keith still had his suspicions Lance might be a little mental. It only added to his personality though so the robot stayed quiet about it.

"Right now? I don't even know what i'm supposed to do." Keith pointed out as he put the broom away. He was going to go regardless, but figured he would at least question the whole thing.

"Well, your going to be in the pen with me and Blue. I'll demonstrate for about an hour and let you try, as Blue likes to work with new people. She's the trainee lion i guess you could say." Lance pointed out. By now he had caught his breath and was casually leaning against the door frame. He was wearing a tee shirt so it was easy to see how sweaty he was and holy hell muscle.

Lance might have not been as ripped ash Shiro was but the brunette was very well toned and looked like he could easily pick up Keith if he wanted to. Why he ever would? Keith didn't know and didn't dwell on the thought too long.

"Ok. Let me close up here and i'll meet you at the enclosure?" The Widget asked. Lance nodded, smile still glowing like the sun.

"Sure thing!" He ran off, enthusiasm lingering where he stood. Lance gave off a lot of good vibes and Keith like it. Whenever he thought about the bad feeling he looked at some of the pictures of Lance he had saved and it automatically gave him that warm feeling in his chest. 

The feelings were far stronger however when he saw Lance in person. And so, Keith hurried to close up the building and check on the animals before jogging to the middle of the zoo where the lion enclosure was.

Once there, he found Shiro and Lance already in the enclosure with Blue laying upside down between them, demanding belly rubs with a low whiny growl as she pawed at their feet. Pidge was there as well, sitting higher up on the rock hill using Green as a pillow. A laptop was in her hands along with a bag full of notebooks, leading Keith to believe she was working on her schoolwork. Now that she was no longer a concern, he felt more relaxed when she was around.

"Hey Keith!" Lance called up to him from the pit. Looking down, the Widget saw that both Lance and Shiro were waving at him and motioning for him to join them. Remembering the way they took during the show, Keith walked around the edge of the enclosure until he reached the building where everything for the lions was kept. Once in there, he looked around and found the stairs that lead don the the enclosure. 

The room downstairs was far larger and had a massive viewing window by the door, showing the pen at eye level. Now that he had the cats eye view that the lions did, the pen looked far more massive than it did from just looking down at it. 

Looking on the other side of the door, Keith found a second, much darker viewing window. Peering into it, he could see Black, Red, and Yellow all lounging in the indoor enclosure. They must have closed the rest of the lions in so Keith could work with blue with no interruptions. He was almost positive that if Red was loose with him the the pit then he probably wouldn't live to tell the tale.

Widgets might live forever as they had no age, but they could still be destroyed.

Leaving the three sleeping lions be, Keith opened the door and stepped out into the grassy shadowed area. Beside him was the makeshift stone pile, set up to where outsiders couldn't see the door. He walked around the stone structure, waving at Pidge when he walked beneath her. She gave him a half hearted two fingered salute before going back to her work, typing away on her laptop. Double checking, Keith noticed that the laptop itself seemed to be giving off it's own wireless internet connection. Smart move.

"Hello!" Shiro stated once Keith came into full view. "I forgot to ask last night, but i trust you had fun?" He asked. The Widget continued walking until he stood beside them, a couple of feet from the lion. Blue regarded him with a lazy look before going back to playfully attacking Lance's feet. 

"Yes, i did have a lot of fun last night. I guess i should thank you and the others for letting me tag along." He said with a forced smile. He still felt a bit intimidated by the single armed veteran regardless of how nice Keith knew he was. Maybe that's why Red partially listened to him.

"We all had fun, especially Lance. We were actually talking about you just before you showed up. All good things, i promise." Shiro said with a chuckle. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Lance's face reddened a bit and he turned away from Keith a bit. Was he.......embarrassed?

A thud on his foot interrupted his thoughts. Looking down yet again, the Widget saw Blue casually flopped across his feet, crushing them. She had given up on getting attention from Shiro and her handler so the big cat went for him instead. Happy, he fell right into her trap. Kneeling down, Keith began to rub at her soft underbelly.

With a loud purr, Blue rolled over and took Keith with her, successfully knocking him over onto his back. The lion took no time climbing on top of him and rubbing her face all over the Robots without a care. If she knew he wasn't human, she didn't show it. Instead she rolled around on top of him purring very very loudly. 

Winded, Keith pleaded to the other two. "Help me-" He said, half joking, half crushed. With a chuckle, Lance made a short high pitched whistle and Blue was off him in an instant. The sleek furred lion trotted over to her tamer and sat down beside him. Lance award her with kissy noises and pats to the top of her head.

"While blue is still super friendly you still do have to assert dominance over them. Show them who's boss, y'know? It's a bit different with Pidge and Green though because Green really doesn't listen every time. She just doesn't care." Lance said with a chuckle.

"Each Lion is different." Shiro stepped in. "Black only listens if he knows there's trust on both ends and if the order is clear. Example, that stunt with Blue and Black you watched in that last show. He knew his part and trusted Blue to do hers. If he didn't think she was going to jump, he wouldn't have gone to catch her." Hearing her name, Blue left Lance side and prodded over to Shiro who gladly pet her ears. 

"Well, let's get started. Do you know how to whistle?" Lance asked now that Blue was occupied. 

"Never tried, but i probably can." Keith stated. He did a bit of quick research (Using Pidge's WiFi since it was a tad faster than his own.) and found that it did seem rather simple. But when he tried, it suddenly seemed much harder.

Trying, Keith only ended up making a weird breathy noise. He tried with his fingers like he had seen Shiro do during their performance last week, but that failed just as miserably as the first attempt.

"Maybe we should just stick with a clicker for now." Shiro said with a chuckle. With his one arm he reached into a packet and pulled out a small ivory colored device with a single button. Resting his thumb in the button, Shiro clicked it a few times and Blue perked up immediately, sitting by him and looking up at the man expectantly. Looking up to Pidge, Keith saw that even Green heard the click and was watching them with wide eyes. 

Smiling, Shiro passed the clicker to Keith. Lance took over from there. "Ok, so all of the lions know basic commands like sit, stay, roll over and such. Tricks you would normally teach a dog. They can also get things. Like this." Lance whistled a short quick note to catch Blue's attention before pointing to a random stick a few yards away. "Blue? Retrieve." He commanded, voice firm and clear, but not in the slightest mad or demanding.

Taking only one look to what Lance was pointing at, Blue hopped up from her spot and bounded over to the stick. Once there, the feline wrapped her jaws around it and with a very growling noise she dragged it back to Lance. "See? Easy." He pointed out, petting the happy cat. 

"Yeah, but Red doesn't behave like Blue does. Or like any of the lions, does he?" Keith pointed out.

"No, which is why you aren't working with him later. First we need you to be used to being in the lions territory and the basic commands. Then we'll move to Red and try to get him to follow the commands while he's in the enclosure and you're up out of harms way. If he listens well enough, then we try in the cage with me and Black watching. After that, you've done it." Shiro explained.

This was either going to end really really good, or really really bad for Keith. And for once he couldn't calculate the chances of either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do apologize for the rushed scene and lack of detail but i was short on time while i was typing it so it is a bit rushed!


	20. Chaos and Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I took everyone's advice and spent much more time writing the chapter instead of cramming it all into one day, and I downloaded a grammar and spelling program to help me touch up my editing! And since I had so much more time typing the chapter is much longer as well! 3,670 words instead of the usual 2,000!  
> Also, I am nearly finished with the music playlist I want to go with the story, and I will be drawing a picture of Violet soon as well so you guys know what she looks like.

        For the rest of the day, Shiro and Lance let Keith work with blue and doing the basic commands. It was far too soon to work with Red directly, so this was the next best thing for now. Despite being a machine, Keith felt worn out. Blue was a well behave lion, yes, but since Keith was new she sometimes felt that she didn't have to listen to him and just flopped over his feet.

        "Well, I think that's good for one day." Shiro pointed out as he stretched his one arm over his head. "I need to go close up my section and check up on Sniff. I'll see you guys here tomorrow after work?" The veteran asked. Lance nodded and gave him a two-fingered salute.

        "Aye aye captain." Looking up to Pidge who was still perched with Green on the rock pile, Lance waved to the small teen. "Time's up Pidgey!" He hollered. He received a simple reply of a thumbs up before she was up and packing up her laptop. Green stretched with a yawn before leaving her tamers side and hopping down to the more grassy area to continue her cat nap. 

        "Before I head out, can I borrow Keith for a minute?" She asked. Lance looked at Keith for a short moment, and when the widget shrugged, Lance looked back up to Pidge and nodded. "Awesome. Keith! Come with me." She demanded.

        He couldn't tell if she was tossing out orders just to mess with him, or because she knew he couldn't say no. Regardless it was a tad bit annoying to the robot. That is if robots could even be annoyed. Either way, he tucked the clicker Shiro had gifted him in his pocket and went to follow Pidge as she left the lion pen. Lance stayed behind with Blue to wait for Keith in the meantime. 

        Once out of the pen and up by the railings of the pen, Pidge stopped and turned around to face the Widget behind her. "So, I have a proposition that can favor the both of us." Looking down, Keith realized she was still wearing the space cat shirt from the arcade. Why did she even like that thing? "Once a week, I want you to come over to my place after work. There, I can figure out more about you. Not in the stalker way though. You're different from other Widgets and we both know it. It would be beneficial for both of us. You let me learn about you, and I can help you figure out why you're different. That and I might be able to throw in some upgrades for fun."

        Keith raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously. "Upgrades?" He asked. "I'm interested, yes, but what do you mean by upgrades? I'm already highest rated in all categories."

        The lion tamer only smirked. "There's always room for improvement." She stated, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. They seemed far too big for her. "Example. You ever wonder why I didn't show up on your scanners?" Pidge asked. Before Keith could offer her an answer, the girl before him reached into her pocket and pulled out a small device. "This is a static transmission blocking device. I can get you one of these. I made it myself so that I'm invisible to all types of scanning except for visual. The first two times I used it on you to see if it worked or not. The third time, this morning, I didn't have it on me and you found out where I was rather quickly." She explained. If Keith was right about one thing, it's that Pidge was in fact, scary smart. Not only did she find out what he was on her own, but she had several ways of testing it too. And she had ended up being right. 

        "That explains a lot," Keith said simply. "But about your earlier question, yeah. I can do the once a week thing. How would I explain that to Lance though? I kind of live with him and he'll want to know where I am. Now that I'm thinking about it, he tends to go where I go." It had just now occurred to him that Lance had literally been by Keith side for the past 2 weeks now at all times. But Lance had never once complained about it. 

        "I'll take care of that. In the meantime, just try to avoid mentioning anything robot related. I know you can't lie, so if he asked just say that I want to hang out with you more. Which is true so yeah." The girl shrugged. She did have a point though.

        "Ok. That should work. Thank you, again, for not telling anyone." Keith said, crossing his arms over his chest. Pidge nodded.

        "No problem. Well, I'm out. See ya tomorrow!" She announced before turning and walking away, leaving Keith alone. 

        Now on his own, Keith turned to the lion pen in the pit below and rested his crossed arms on the metal railing, gazing into the clearing below. Lance was wrestling around in the grass with Blue, each trying to see who could sit on the other longer. Of course Blue was winning, but only because Lance was letting her. If it was possible to spoil a  lion, Lance seemed to have been the one to do it.

        "Lance!" He called into the pen. Both Blue and Lance had their attention caught and turned their heads to look up at him. "Ready to go?" He asked. Lance smiled and nodded before hopping up and a bit too anxiously rushing to the door behind the rock pile. A moment later and Keith watched as Red and the other were released from the indoor enclosure to run free once more. And not too much longer after that, Lance appeared from the building behind the pen and jogged over to Keith.

        "You seem in a rush." The shorter male pointed out to his human friend. He only shrugged.

        "Just excited to head home early I guess. Let's go!" Lance turned and started marching towards the main entrance of the zoo, Keith following close behind as they made their way to the truck. 

        A half-hour later the duo arrived at Lance's house. Once inside, Lance flopped on the couch. "Dude, remind me that it's bath time for blue next time I see her. She was sitting on me and MAN did she smell." He pointed out, fanning the air in front of his face dramatically. Keith took a seat in the chair beside the small couch Lance had spawled his entire body. His legs were a bit too long and hung over the arm on the other end while his head rested on the one closest to Keith. They spent their time like this after work a lot.

        They would come home from work, Lance would make something for dinner or Keith would beat him to it, then they would sit and watch tv while Lance filled out paperwork from the zoo. Occasionally Lance would ask for help or random questions to help out whenever he was too tired to think.

        But today, it was only noon so dinner didn't need to be made yet, and the paperwork could wait. They had time to kill.

        "Soooooo, you wanna do something?" Lance asked. Judging by the grin on his face, he already had something planned and had just waited till they were home to ask. 

        "Depends on what that something is," Keith asked. He leaned over a bit so he could see Lance's face. The boy's face flushed a dull shade of red for a moment before he quickly sat up, now eye-level with Keith. It wasn't until then Keith had realized just how close he had gotten to his roommate. Well, housemate technically. 

        "Well, the whole gang was hanging out the other day. I had fun, yeah, but it seemed a bit crowded in my opinion. I was wondering if perhaps maybe you wanted to hang out? Just you and me this time?" He asked, and Keith froze. Lance wanted to go have fun like the other night, but with just him. Lance could have chosen any of his other friends that he was much closer to, but he instead chose the guy he picked up off the streets 2 weeks ago. Lance chose to ask Keith. If he didn't feel special before he definitely did now.

        "W-we don't have to-" Lance stuttered out when Keith didn't reply right away. "I just thought it would be a good idea to pass the time since work got out early today and-" 

        Keith reached over and gently put his hand on Lance's shoulder to try and calm him down. "Lance?" He said. The Cuban froze the moment Keith's hand came in contact with him, but at least he stopped talking for now. But when the words stopped, his gaze started. Blue eyes locked onto Keith own deep violet colored irises. And Keith found himself unable to form words for a moment. He hadn't realized how blue Lance's eyes were until now. At first glance, they looked like normal blue eyes. But now? Up close? Lance's eyes were an ocean. And Keith felt as if the tide was pulling him in.

        Blinking, Keith managed to break the trance and form words. "I would love to hang out with you." He said. And it wasn't a lie. The widget wanted to be with Lance as much as he could. The boy intrigued him in so many ways in more than just plain curiosity.  

        Lance pulled back, face flushed as a result of the locked gaze. How long had they sat like that? Neither of them knew. But now Lance visibly relaxed and nodded. "Yeah, cool. Awesome." He said, voice just a tad higher than it usually was. "Well, I still smell like a lion, so I'm going to go fix that." He stated, avoiding looking at Keith as he stood up from the couch and marched down the hallway. "I'll let you get the shower first because you smell like a cat too, so yeah." Keith raised an eyebrow as Lance vanished down the hallway and later heard a door shut. 

        Well, that was weird. Standing up to go get ready for a shower, the only thing running through Keith's mind was the image of Lance's dark blue eyes. Such a pretty color. Though the moment was awkward, Keith had like it. That was the first time he had seen Lance up close face to face. And though the Widget had only existed for a couple of months, he could easily say that Lance was one of the prettiest humans he had seen by far.

        Ok, enough gay thoughts Keith, the writers' hands are starting to hurt.

        In the next few minutes, Keith managed to grab a set of clean clothes, a towel and made his way back down to the bathroom. While Lance's house was a decent size, there was still only the one bathroom. Luckily for Keith anything he ate was turned into electric power with a bio generator that he had been built with, eliminating any need for a toilet. So Lance mostly had the bathroom to himself.

        The shower Keith took was quick, as he didn't want to use all of the hot water before Lance could get a shower of his own. Once he was finished, Keith stepped out of the shower and stood in front of the sink. With one of his hands, Keith reached up and wiped the fog from the large mirror and looked at his reflection. He had seen himself plenty of times before, but it still surprised him just how human he looked compared to other Widgets. Like the one at the arcade, it was small things that few people noticed. Keith didn't have those small things.

        He was perfect, in a way. His eyes didn't hold a dull look, his hair didn't look fake, and his skin didn't look stiff. There only one thing Keith could point out that was obvious to the naked eye. And it was his eyes. Not only were they an unnatural shade of purple, but if he leaned close enough to the mirror, Keith could see the thin tiny black lines through his irises, similar to a camera lens shutter. 

        He wondered if Lance saw them only moments ago. 

        Sighing, Keith reached for his towel to finish drying off. That is until the door opened.

        "Ah! Lance, I'm still in here!" Keith yelled, quickly covering himself with the towel as best he could in a split second. 

        "Sorry! Sorry, I thought you were out already! What the heck is taking you so long?" Lance asked after promptly slamming the door shut. 

        "I got distracted! I'll be out in just a minute." Keith replied with a bit of bite to his voice. He hadn't meant to sound rude, but he was a machine and had better manners than just walking in on people. Lance could have knocked to check first, it wasn't that hard.

        Quickly, Keith put on a pair of jeans and a plain dark grey tee shirt before grabbing his dirty work clothes and stepping out of the steamy bathroom. Lance, who had seemingly recovered from the incident, was leaning against the wall beside the door with clothes in hand. Keith thought he was mad, but Lance only laughed at him. "Nice hair, Mullet." He commented.

        Reaching up, Keith found that when he had dried his hair it had turned the black locks into a mass of frizz and the definition of a bad hair day. "Like your hair is going to look any better when you're done." He commented, turning around to go throw his dirty clothes in the laundry.

        Half an hour later and Lance had proved Keith very, very wrong.

        "It's called personal hygiene. Look it up~" Lance flaunted. He had donned a pair of dark blue skinny jeans with a plain white shirt and a grey-blue zip-up hoodie. And his hair was perfect. Keith had simply combed the knots from his own hair, but Lance looked like he had just gone and got a thousand dollar haircut.

        The words slipped out of Keith's mouth before he could process what he was saying. "Could you do that to my hair at some point?" He asked. 

        Luckily, Lance seemed unfazed and continued his charade of showing off his skills. "Perhaps, but the mullet would have to go." He said with a smirk. Rolling his eyes with a groan, Keith turned to walk back to the living room.

        "Not a mullet. Forget I asked-" Plopping back down in the chair, he watched as Lance chuckled and take his seat on the couch again.

        "Alright, so you've seen the arcade and the popular restaurant choice, what should we do for the day? I have a few plans, but I'm curious as to what you wanna do." Keith turned to look at Lance and violet locked with blue once more. Thankfully Lance was on the other end of the couch this time so it wasn't like before. 

        "I don't really know a lot of places here. You've lived here longer than me so I was just going to go where you wanted to go." He answered. It was almost a lie, as Keith had satellite maps of the entire planet he could access at any time. But he had never been to any of those places himself.

        "I guess that makes sense. Well, there's a movie theatre that's about a 20-minute walk from here. We could leave the truck here and if you see someplace you want to go to on the way, we do that. Sound good?" Lance asked. It wasn't a bad idea, so Keith nodded. He would probably just keep his mouth shut until they got to the movies though. "Well, no point in waiting, so let's get going!" The brunette announced. Once he stood up from the couch he offered a hand to Keith and hoisted him from the chair.

        After Lance grabbed his keys and wallet, and Keith put his shoes on, the two were on their way.

        By now it was a little past 1 in the afternoon, so there weren't many people walking around the city. Majority of everyone was either at work or at school still thus why Lance had closed up the zoo early. 

        "So, I noticed you and Pidge seem a bit more friendly towards each other. When did that happen?" Lance asked as they walked down the sidewalk. "She's not exactly the easiest person to become friends with. Picky little bugger-" He commented. The last sentence was said with a squint.

        "Yeah, when I got to the reptile house this morning she had already fed the animals for me. She stopped by thanked me for the shirt from the arcade." And to interrogate him about his non-humanity, but that was a conversation for another day.

        "Ah. I see. That shirt was pretty cool. Wish they had one in my size." Lance commented. "Also good job getting that on the first try. I can never seem to get anything first try. The second time usually works for me though." 

        Keith let his mind drift as Lance chatted idly about the arcade, the zoo, and other little memories. He liked listening to people talk. Not even just Lance. Hearing other people talk about things was like reading a book or watching a movie almost. And who likes talking while they're reading a book? That just ruins the story.

        And so Keith stayed quiet as Lance talked. Whenever a question was asked he would give short and simple answers that prompted Lance to continue speaking. 

        Eventually, they got to a crosswalk with a red light. Keith and Lance had a small race to see who could push the walk button first but both ended up smacking at the same time and getting a monotone voice saying 'wait' from the machine. 

        The both of them laughed before removing their hands from the button. He liked it when Lance laughed, and he liked it when he himself laughed. It felt nice. And he felt as though he could keep laughing with Lance and it would be perfectly ok.

        Until he looked over Lance's shoulder and saw a familiar face he had hoped to never see again in person. 

        Smile and laughter falling away like dead leaves in the winter, Keith felt his chest clench up with pure and utter fear, the one thing he hated feeling the most.

        Standing across the street with a phone in hand and her hair tied up, was Violet.

        The tight feeling in his chest spread to his entire body and Keith found himself unable to move, paralyzed at the sight of the girl he had trusted his feeling too, the girl who had been the first to see his feelings and crush them right under her foot with no sign of regret or remorse. 

        "Yo, Keith, my man, you ok?" Lance asked, suddenly in front of him. "Keith?"

        Eyes wide, Keith slowly shook his head. Lance looked to where Keith had locked his gaze, but he did not know Violet so he didn't see what Keith saw. "Come on, talk to me buddy. What's going on?" He asked, placing his hands on the Widgets shoulders. 

        "Sh...she's here. Why is she here?" Keith asked quietly. The light turned green and People started crossing the street. Violet was one of them. She was going to see him, she was going to get mad, she was going to take him away from Lance and have him dismantled because he was broken. And broken things were meant to go in the trash.

        "She?" Lance looked confused for a moment, and then realization lit up in his eyes. "Crap, um-" Lance looked around and after a short moment, Keith felt Lance grab his wrist and start pulling him along, away from Violet and away from the open where she could find him.

        Everything passed by as a blur for the next few minutes, and the next thing Keith knew he was sitting on the floor of what looked like a gas station bathroom.  His chest hurt as he struggled to breath. He didn't even need to breathe so why did it hurt so much? Was he having a malfunction? Did something in his systems break down? 

        Suddenly Lance had his arms around Keiths trembling shoulders as if trying to stop the shaking. And he was grateful to be surrounded by the kind familiarity.

        "Relax, you're fine. Just breathe. In....out.....in.....out. Hey, look at me." Lance pulled away and then put his hands on both sides of Keiths' face and forced the Widget to look at him directly. "Focus on me. Nothing else matters right now, ok?" Lance asked. His voice somehow broke through the muffled blur that had melded into his data systems. 

        Eventually, after a few minutes of waiting, Keith matched his breathing to Lance's own steady chest movements and the blur faded away.

        "What....what happened?" Keith asked.

        "I think you just had a panic attack because of your ex," Lance explained, a half forced nervous smile on his lips. Lance moved his hands from the sides of Keiths' face and down to his shoulders. The constant touch helped Keith stay grounded in reality. "Have you had a panic attack before?" He asked. Keith shook his head.

        "First time......didn't know I could get them...." His voice sounded scratchy and uneven as he spoke nothing but the truth.

        "Well, lucky for you I have a big family and know how to deal with stuff like that." He stated with a lighthearted chuckle. The little comment caused Keith to give a small laugh of his own.

        "Yeah, lucky me." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALSO, I NEED HELP  
> Most Voltron AU's and fanfics have little things about the characters to set them apart from other AU's. I was thinking about things like specific outfits, or hair dye, or something like that. If you have any ideas i would love to hear them!


	21. Supernova

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> IM BACK MY DUDES

        Keith wasn't sure exactly how long the two sat there on the bathroom floor sitting beside one another. Lance had yet to pull away from the embrace that he had trapped Keith in, but the Widget wasn't complaining. It felt nice to have someone hold him. Lance was considerably warmer than Keith's own body temperature which was a pleasant gift seeing as the floor they sat on was fairly cold. Though the circumstances were not the best, Keith admitted to himself that he was rather enjoying this moment. 

        But the question still remained. Why was Violet here? Was it because she was looking for him, or was it just by pure coincidence that they nearly crossed paths? 

        It was very much a possibility that she was looking for him. Keith was not a cheap Widget by any means so him vanishing was a costly issue. But how she could find him he had no idea-

        Trackers.

        All machines made by the Widget company had built in trackers so their buyers knew where their purchases were at all times. Even if the Widget had no power or was destroyed the tracker could still function so buyers could get a refund or salvage the parts. It wasn't uncommon for Widgets to be destroyed.

        And Keith wondered if that's what Violet wanted to do with Keith. To have him destroyed for 'Malfunctioning'. Because what do people do with broken things? They get rid of them and get a new one. 

        But if Violet found him he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop her. Even Lance wouldn't be able to stop her. She was still number one on his priority list. She was his rightful owner and he was bound to her by codes and contracts. The only way for that to change would be if Violet passed away or if she sighed him over to someone. 

        It was scary how a single person could hold that much power over him. A name was all it took. And a couple billion dollars but that was all under Violet's name. Every part of him belonged to her and her alone.

        And yet as Keith sat here on the cold, dirty bathroom floor with Lance, he wanted to belong to him instead.  He wanted Lance's name to be on the top of that list.

        "You good?" The brunette's voice cut through Keith's thoughts and gave him the motivation to lift his head and lock eyes with the source of comfort. Deep blue eyes filled with worry locked onto his own violet iris's. Though Lance was smiling in an attempt to make the robot feel better, Keith could see the concern practically spilling out of him. 

        Offering a small sigh and a nod, Keith looked away from the piercing ocean eyes. "Thank you..."

        His own voice had been so quiet and breathy that he doubted Lance even heard him. But the boy was just full of surprises. That's one of the confusing things that Keith liked about him. Lance was unpredictable.

        "Anytime." Standing up, Lance never broke contact with Keith. One hand on the smaller boys shoulder and the other holding Keith's own hand he pulled and tugged the Widget to his feet. "So, I'll leave it up to you. Do you still feel up to hanging around town or do you just want to head home for the day?" 

        Keith could tell Lance still wanted to hang out with him by the almost puppy dog look in his eyes. Rover had given Pidge that looks one time when the dog wanted a chicken nugget from her (Which he ended up getting). Keith wanted to say no, to head back home and avoid the chance of ever seeing Violet again, but at the same time, he desperately wanted to spend some time with Lance. 

        "Can we just go straight to the movies like you originally planned?" He suggested. Lance pondered the idea for a moment before nodding with a smile.

        "Good idea. Less chance of running into her who shall not be mentioned I suppose." It was then that Lance realized he was still holding Keith's hand. Awkwardly he pulled away, a red tinge creeping its way onto the tan skin.  Keith noticed and wondered if that what his own face looked like when it felt warm.

        But what confused him was the last thing Lance said. "She who shall not be named?" He asked.

        "Y'know, from Harry Potter? Voldemort? He who shall not be named?" Lance tried, recovering from his red-faced moment. Instead, his face washed over with the look of disbelief. "Oh no, please tell me you've watched the Harry Potter movies. Or at least read the books." Lance had what looked like a cringe on his face, and it left Keith confused.

        "No? I don't really watch movies that often." The statement seemed harmless enough, but the horrified look on Lance's face said otherwise. The poor guy looked like his favorite pet just died or something. 

        "No nooope nope, UNACCEPTABLE." Somewhere between the denial and shock, Keith could see through the feigned facade and smirked a bit when he saw that Lance was just messing around and being over dramatic on purpose. The perfect distraction to get Keith's mind away from the previous incident.

        "It's just a movie, calm down." He kept the smile on his face to show that there was no real power or force behind his words. He was only adding fuel to the flame. 

        Lance scoffed, giving off a look of fake offense as he turned the bathroom door. "JUST a movie? Dude, the whole series is a work of pure golden art. Tis a masterpiece on screen." Keith chuckled as Lance opened the bathroom door and the two of them walked out of the dimly lit room. 

        Having been in too much of a panic to notice, Keith took in his surrounding and discovered that Lance had pulled him into some sort of small convenience store that mostly sold snack drinks and other miscellaneous cheap items. For a short moment, his eyes focus on a rack of phone chargers and reminded Keith that he still needed to get a charger of his own. Manually wiring himself to one of the outlets in Lance's guest room was good enough to keep him running for now, but it wasn't ideal. It was also a fire hazard but it was a small risk he was willing to take.

        "Want anything to drink while we're here?" Lance asked, snapping Keith from his daze. He needed to stop zoning out like that all of the time. It was happening too often for someone to not notice eventually.  

        "No, I'm good. Thanks for the offer though." He stated, looking at the rows of sugary carbonated drinks. Humans were confusing. Didn't they know that stuff wasn't healthy for them? And expensive?

        "Eh, me neither. I'll probably just buy something at the movie theater." The duo started walking once more, heading out of the building after giving a quick wave and a thank you to the cashier. 

        Without a word, Lance took the lead and made sure that Keith was close behind him. Similar to a bodyguard, the taller male kept a lookout as they walked, making sure that Violet wasn't in the area anymore. He hadn't gotten a good look at her or even knew if he had seen the same person that Keith had, but he would try his best. And for that Keith was thankful. 

        Once a few blocks away from the store, Lance deemed it safe for them to walk normally once again and slowed down so the two were once again standing side by side. "So, I just realized something. We've been living in the same house for what, two weeks now? And yet I still know barely anything about you."

        Taken by surprise, Keith looks at Lance with a raised eyebrow. "I could say the same about you. Other than what Pidge tells me."

        "And what does she say about me?" Lance asked with a smirk. Keith mirrored the look with a teasing smirk of his own. While he didn't know how to relay emotion, Lance did. So, for the most part, he just copied Lance's body language in conversations such as their current one.

        "That you're too tall." And just like that, the smirk was wiped right from Lance's face. It was funny how emotions worked. While they were weird and confused Keith to no end, they were also highly amusing to him.

        "Oh that gremlins gonna get it the next time I see her. I am not too tall. She's just really short. Don't tell her I said that though. ANYWAYS, back to the original conversation." The declaration earned a small chuckle from Keith which left Lance smiling with pride at the fact that he could easily cheer someone up.

        "So, I barely know anything about you. I ask you a question, and then you ask me a question. And we stop once we get the theater. Sound fair?" Lance asked. Seeing as Keith did have many questions for Lance, he agreed with a curt nod.

        "Yeah, sounds fair to me. You go first since it was your idea." While that was part of the reason, Keith was highly curious about the questions that Lance had about him. He mostly wanted to know what Lance thought about him. He'd have to ask Pidge later. 

        "Ok, to start off, how old are you exactly? I made a rough guess but you never told me your exact age." 

        Crap. Technically Keith was only 2 and a half months old if you count age as how long he's been active. He couldn't tell that to Lance. That was a huge giveaway to him being a Widget. So instead he went with the loophole. All personality chips came with a fake age for them to follow. Luckily, Keith still had the one that Violet had given them the first day he was working for her.

        "23. My birthday was 2 months ago." Good enough. The was the closest he could go from the truth without it being a blatant lie. According to the personality chip, he WAS 23. It was also his turn to ask a question. "How old are you?" He questioned before Lance could linger on that answer.

        Lance seemed to tense up a bit before squinting. "I'm 22, but that means nothing! I might be younger than you but I'm still the cool one-" The conversation paused for a moment as the two dashed across a crosswalk just before the light changed to red. The number of people walking and driving around the city started to pick up. Rush hour would begin soon. 

        "Ok, my turn again," Lance said once they were safe across the street. "Where are you from? Like, where were you born?" He asked. Lance was making this difficult without even trying. Agreeing to this game was a bad idea. Luckily Keith was smart, and there was always loopholes. His body had been manufactured elsewhere, and being born was roughly the same thing as being created. Thus his loophole to the question.

        "I'm from Texas. And before you start making cattle jokes or anything like that, no, I was not born on a farm. I've never even been to a farm."  The last few parts of that statement were completely true, however. Lance looked as though he had a who stash of jokes built up, but once Keith had finished speaking, he pouted. 

        "Dang it, I had the best cowboy joke ever and you ruined it," Lance replied sarcastically. "Alright, moving on. Your turn hotshot."

        "Oh, so we're doing nicknames now?" Keith said with an eyebrow raised curiously. Lance chuckled, seeming a bit flustered again like he had earlier. That lead Keith to assume that nicknames weren't all that common among friends. That's what they were, right? Friends?

        "Yeah sure, why not. But that means I need one. It's your turn for a question though so do that first and then pick a nickname. And make it a cool one!"

        "Ok, question first, name's later. Got it." Keith stated. "I'm just going to copy your questions. Where are you from?" He asked.

        "I'll answer your question with a question. Ever wonder why there's only one star on the Cuban flag?" Lance asked, a mischievous glint in his eye as if he had been waiting for the moment for a while now. "Because Cuba only has one star," Oh no. Keith knew exactly where this was going. "And it's me~"

        "Oh my god-" Keith rolled his eyes and planted his face into one of his own hands. Despite the slight annoyance, amusement showed through with a small smile and a breathy laugh. "Have you been waiting to say that this whole time?"

        "You bet I did. Admit it, that was an awesome tagline!" Lance had a victorious grin on his face as they crossed yet another busy street. Traffic was starting to pick up. But by the looks of it, the movie theater wasn't too far away. Just a few more building down the road.

        "Just for that, I might make your nickname something about stars." It was said as a joke, but the more he thought about it, the more legitimate it seemed. He went through a quick list of star stuff in his head until he saw something that fit. "How about Supernova?" 

        Keith and Lance paused as a crosswalk that had yet to turn green and took the chance to face each other while talking. "Hmm, Supernova." The Cuban repeated the name to himself a few times, getting the feel for the word. "I like it! I accept that as a good nickname." Lance declared puffing out his chest with pride. 

        "I might just call you Mr. Ego now that I'm thinking about it."  At that comment, Lance let out an ungraceful squawk. 

        "Now hold up a gosh darn minute-" Before Lance could finish, the crosswalk light turned green and Keith promptly started walking, leaving Lance there. "Where do you think you're going hot shot?" He complained before hurrying to follow. By now Keith was already halfway across the large street, looking over his shoulder at Lance.

        If he hadn't been looking back, then Lance would have had a very bad day.

        "Lance, look out!" Keith hollered just as a car flew out of nowhere and around the corner, right onto the street that Lance had just stepped onto. And the driver didn't seem to notice or care that the light was red. Before Keith even knew what he was doing, he sprinted towards Lance. He could hear the screeching of tires against the pavement as the car tried to either stop or turn, but the vehicle just kept going forward.

        Keith beat the car by a hair and instead of the hood crashing into Lance, it was the body of his close friend. The moment Keith collided with Lance's chest the both of them were sent flying out of the way and back onto the sidewalk. Feelings or no feelings, Keith could definitely feel the bottom of his shoe barely graze the rubber of the speeding car's tire. 

        Rolling off of the top of Lance, Keith turned as saw the car speed off as if nothing had happened at all. Seconds later the sound of sirens filled the air as police followed after the car. But that wasn't important to him right now. Lance was.

        Turning back to the person he just saved, Keith was surprised to find Lance sitting up and staring at him with what looked like shock and admiration. And Keith found himself out of breath for two reasons instead of one.

        "How the hell did you reach me that fast?" Lance asked in a small voice. A few people had gathered around them to ask and see if they were ok. To answer them the two stood up and dusted themselves off, but the whole time Lance's eyes never left Keith.

        "Good reflexes I guess." He stated, words lacking volume as he felt winded. Which was weird because he was a robot, he didn't need to breathe. Once the crowd around them realized that no one was hurt, they dissipated and went back to whatever they were doing beforehand. 

        "I think that was more than just reflexes there, buddy. Do you normally run that fast?" He asked. Keith wondered if Lance had hit his head when the two had collided. Did he not realize that he could have died by being hit by a car? Where were this guy's priorities? Lance nearly got ran over by a speeding vehicle and he's concerned with how fast Keith can run. 

        "You are aware that you almost died, right?" Keith asked, just to make sure. Lance merely shrugged and scratched the top of his head in deep thought.

        "Yes, I am, but that still doesn't explain why you can run so fast-" With a groan of frustration Keith rolled his eyes for the second time that day. "I think today has been crazy enough for both of us. I vote we just head home for the day and go to the movies on a less busy day-" 

        "Agreed." The two looked at each other with a small nod of confirmation before turning and going back the way they originally came from. 

        The duo walked in somewhat of an awkward silence for a bit before Lance spoke up with a genuine voice. "Thanks for the save back there hotshot. If it weren't for you I would probably be a hood ornament."

        As Lance spoke, Keith noticed how Lance purposefully made a 'wrong turn' to avoid the place that they had seen Violet earlier that day. And he smiled.

        "Just returning the favor, Supernova."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy QUIZNAK it feels good to be writing again! I hope y'all missed me because I'm back baby and I'm not going anywhere for a while (Hopefully, lol). The convention I went to was a blast and I will be uploading photos I took of all of the Voltron cosplays! They were all so awesome!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy the new and very late chapter! I know from experience that story hiatus's suck. And to make up for the lack of content for the last 2 months I put some action in this chapter for ya!
> 
> Also, if you noticed the new chapter lengths, good for you! I will now be doing a minimum of 3,000 words per chapter instead of the usual 2,000! I want to improve my writing as the story goes on and so I want to start taking more time writing, thus more content per chapter.
> 
> And next week you will all get to see an amazing picture. The one that I drew of Keith with the wire in his neck? I have a friend who cosplays Keith and she gave me permission to paint that on her and take a photo of it. Basically a live-action remake of the drawing.
> 
> Things are about to really pick up in the story! Prepare for angst, drama, sadness, and anger because this story will have it all. Also for those of you who want more content on other characters outside of Keith Pidge and Lance, there will be a chapter where Keith hangs out with the others such as Shiro Hunk and Allura (Maybe even Coran, who knows?) I can officially say we have at least reached the halfway point in this story.
> 
> One more thing,  
> Can you find the two points of foreshadowing in this chapter~?
> 
> Until next time my dudes!


	22. Stay With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some friendship and awkward fluff!

  Thankfully the walk back to the house was uneventful and quick, even with all of the extra turns to avoid traffic jammed roads. The whole time both the young adults had kept a close eye on everything, Lance watching for cars, and Keith keeping an eye out for Violet. The edgy feeling the Widget felt was very similar to how he first felt around Pidge. when they had met. Paranoia. Yet another word to add to the growing list of thing he didn't like about being able to feel things.

        By the time they had made it home, the sun had started to lower, casting an orange glow across the short driveway and tall pale blue house. The view was rather pretty, prompting Keith to capture a quick picture of the golden sight. However, after he took the photo he then realized that there was someone on the porch. Lance noticed as well as he reached up a hand and waved to the invader. A bark from a very familiar golden-furred dog told them who the little gremlin was.

        "Hey, Pidge! What brings you here?" As Lance jogged the rest of the way to meet up with Pidge, Keith looked and saw her moped parked by Lance's truck. running a small scan he confirmed that Pidge had out one of the signal blockers on her vehicle too, making it invisible to him all except for sight. Maybe Pidge was just as paranoid as he was, thus why she was so secretive and hid everything.

        It was then he realized, Pidge was hiding from Widgets. All of her tech that he had scene was meant to keep him and other Robots from finding her. The signal blockers in her and her moped, the way she had found out he wasn't human, all of it. Everything she had done only worked on Widgets.

        But why was she trying to hide from them? 

        "Hey, Keith, Pidge says she wants to talk with you real quick. I'll be inside making dinner." Lance announced, snapping Keith out of the daze of thoughts. The Widget nodded to him and Lance went inside. Not even two seconds later Pidge was on her feet and marching over to Keith who appeared really confused at her behavior. Rover followed, happy to see her rescuer again.

        "What the hell happened while you were out today?!" She scolded, catching him off guard. Shrugging, Keith raised an eyebrow to convey his confusion. "I put a tracker on you so I could monitor you and not 3 hours later I'm already getting a ton of red flags-" She grumbled, now pacing around Keith, looking up and down at him as if examining him.

        "W-wait, you put a tracker on me? When?!" He questioned, feeling the hotheaded personality chip kick in and make him appear upset by the new discovery. He felt rather alarmed actually.

        "Not important. What is important is the fact that you almost fried your system twice today. Twice!" She flung her hands in the air as if she was an enraged child complaining about something. The description wasn't all too far off. "You're a Widget of the highest rating, right? So how the hell do you nearly break yourself two times in one day?" 

        "Wait, break myself? I didn't take any damage or anythi-" The panic attack. He hadn't physically been hurt, so how had it almost broke him.

        "The first time your systems went haywire as if everything was trying to shut off at once yet at the same time they were trying to restart altogether. The second time your systems locked up and ignored every protocol you had programmed. So please do enlighten me on what the heck happened." Done examining him for physical injuries, Pidge stood in from of Keith with her arms crossed. 

        "I.....I don't really know what happened to me. Lance and I went for a walk in town and when we were at one of the crosswalks I saw someone I used to know and I just froze up. I don't really remember what happened but the next thing I knew I was in a bathroom with Lance trying to calm me down." Looking to Pidge, he hoped she actually had answers for him.

        "That's....really interesting. That's what happens during a panic attack. Whoever built you not only made you look and act like a human physically but, they gave you the ability to experience what a human does. I know you told me that you can feel things like emotions and such, but to have reactions like that as well? That's amazing." The fury and outrage that had been in Pidge's eyes melted away and was replaced with a gentle gaze of awe and admiration. At the moment he wondered what Pidge saw him as. The girl knew he was a robot, but did she look at him and see a Widget, or did she see Keith?

        "When you get out of work tomorrow meet me in my portion of the zoo. I'll take you to my place and see if we can't figure out what happened." She stated, leaning down to pet Rover. "I'm going to run some scans and tests to see if we can't find anything. Everyone knows you can't mimic strong emotions like that in technology, so I wanna see what makes you so different."

        Different. There's that word again. So many people have called him that but he still didn't even know what they meant. Was it a good different or a bad different? 

        "Yeah, I'll be there," Keith said, ignoring the last thought. He would find out eventually. Hopefully.

        Behind Pidge, the front door opened up and Lance was there, waving to them. "Dinners ready!" He called out. "I made macaroni~" The taller male cast a smirk in Pidge's direction just as her head whipped around (Rover turned around too).

        "Oh hell yeah!" The girl hollered, leaving Keith in the dust as she and her dog ran back onto the porch and into the house. Man, she must really like macaroni. Even Rover seemed to like it, considering she knew the word for the food. Keith wondered what other thing Rover was taught because if Pidge can train a lion then a dog should be easy.

        Realizing that Lance was still holding the door open for him, Keith jogged up the porch steps and into the house. If Keith had a heart, it would have skipped a beat when Lance casually rested his hand on the Widgets shoulder before letting it slide off mere seconds later. 

         The small touch had startled him a bit, but it felt nice for the small amount of time it lasted. 

        Lance had either not realized what he had just done, or was unaware of the effect it had on Keith, because immediately afterward he passed in front of the Widget with a kind smile and went straight to the kitchen to keep Pidge from eating all of the macaroni. Keith was fully aware of it, and the warm feeling returned, burning brightly in his chest and the spot Lance had touched. It confused Keith to no end how Lance could cause him to feel like that with just a small touch when no one else's touch did that. 

        Sometimes he wondered if Lance was special like he was. Just like everyone else with one small detail to stand out.

        "Yo Keith hurry before Pidge feeds all the mac to Rover!" The familiar voice of the very person he was thinking of caught his attention from the kitchen, followed by the small evil chuckle from Pidge and then a very happy bark from Rover. Greedy little furball.

        "Yeah, I'm coming." He answered, hurrying into the chaos-filled room. He would just ask Pidge about that tomorrow. He could tell her about tech stuff and she could tell him about human stuff. 

         Walking into the kitchen was a regrettable choice, to say the least. Pidge and Lance were entangled in a pile of body and limbs on the floor, each with a hand grasped tightly on a spoon with cheesy mac on the end of it. Rover was sitting nearly, eating a pile of the spilled dinner that had hit the floor in the brawl. "Should I be concerned?" He asked.

        The moment the duo heard Keith speak up, the rolled off of one another and stood up, chuckling a bit. "Nah, this is normal. Happens every single time she comes over." Lance started to explain. "Pidge here likes to spoil Rover to death, which in turn is wasting my cooking!" The last line was directed more at Pidge than at Keith. 

        "You're cooking sucks dude." The little gremlin stated with an eye-roll. "I walked in here, and I could tell that you insulted my ancestors by making this fake boxed crap. Make it from scratch next time! Or have Keith make it. I've never had his food but I bet it's better than this garbage."

        Lance let out an undignified squawk of offense at the comment and turned to his housemate. "Come on buddy back me up here, my cooking isn't THAT bad, is it?"

        Deciding to go along with the joking manner of the conversation, Keith abandoned a serious answer (Since he didn't have taste buds to determine if Lance's cooking was good or not) in favor of siding with Lance.

        "Sorry Pidge, but I literally live in his house so I'm not allowed to complain about how his cooking tastes." He said with a casual shrug, chuckling a bit when Pidge's jaw dropped. 

        "Traitor, you disgrace the world of taste by accepting the barbarians idea of cooking-" Looking over to Rover, it looked like he should have been the one pointed out as traitor seeing as he was the one currently eating it. 

        "Oh about that!" Lance announced. "Tomorrow before work I gotta talk to you. About the housemate thing." The statement caused Keith to raise an eyebrow curiously until he realized what Lance might have meant. Keith couldn't stay in Lance's house forever. The first night Lance had let him stay here he had said it was just until Keith could get a place of his own. And in the city, there was always apartments available.

        "Good for you two. Now, I'm gonna go use the bathroom and go home to make some hot pockets." Pidge marched passed Keith and down the hall to the bathroom, vanishing from sight. Looking to Lance, they both shrugged and the taller boy moved to clean up the mess Rover had made with her free dinner. Keith moved to help, but the Cuban merely waved his hand.

        "Nah I've got it. There's still macaroni if you want some. Pidge only dropped a little bit for Rover." As he wiped the cheese from the floor, Lance squinted at the large dog. The dog stared right back and Keith couldn't help but laugh and take a picture of the ridiculous situation. 

        Stepping around the small mess, Keith grabbed a bowl and put a few scoops of the cheesy meal in it before going to the living room and sitting in his designated spot. Lance didn't have a dining room or a large table claiming that it felt more homey and casual just to eat in what he dubbed the 'family room' which was just the living room.

        Pidge returned after a while, leaving Keith to question why the heck she was in the bathroom that long. Lance had also finished cleaning up after Rover and both of them joined Keith in the living room with dishes of their own meals. Pidge begrudgingly ate the macaroni as thanks for cleaning up Rover's mess.

        The night passed rather uneventfully after that. They chatted as they ate and when that was done, Pidge said her goodbyes, grabbed Rover and left to head back home before it got too late. Once she was gone, Lance dubbed it bedtime after such a long and very eventful day. 

        The two said their goodnights and headed off to bed. Keith walked into his room and flipped the lamp on to change, only to pause in the middle of pulling his shirt off. Sitting on his bed was a thin black cord with a note attached to it.

        It was a charging cord, the one he needed.

        Picking up the note, Keith couldn't help but chuckle. in sloppy handwriting, it read 'You need to lighten up some, maybe this will help.' with a poorly drawn picture of a dog in the corner of it. So that's what had taken Pidge so long in the bathroom.

 

\---The next day---

 

        The next morning went normally, with the exception of one teeny tiny detail that Keith caught. Lance seemed a bit stiff, almost nervous, anxious or something. When Keith had asked him about it, Lance just brushed it off as being tired. He instead changed the subject and kept asking Keith if he was ok, considering what had happened the day before. 

        Soon the two were ready to go to work for the day and got in the old blue truck, enjoying the cold crisp morning air as they buckled in. 

        "Do you.....like it here?" Lance asked quietly as he started the truck. Confused, Keith turned his head to face Lance.

        "What do you mean?" He asked. Lance shrugged and pulled the truck out of the driveway on onto the street that took them directly to the zoo. Keith had asked about walking to save on gas, but as it turns out Lance's truck actually had an electric motor. No gas needed. So the faster ride was of no cost and no harm to the environment. 

        "I mean do you like it here? My house, the zoo, all of it. Do you like how things are right now?" Lance pulled the truck into its usual spot, putting the gear in park. And yet he did not make a move to get out of the truck once the engine way off. 

        "Yeah, I guess so. Is something wrong?" Keith asked, unbuckling the seatbelt and turning to fully face his companion. Lance was fiddling with his hands, looking more nervous now than he had earlier.

        "Do you want to stay here?" He blurted. Realizing the question was vague the nervous boy spoke again before Keith could. "Like, at my house. Just live there instead of finding an apartment, maybe?" Reaching up to scratch the back of his neck, Lance shrugged with a forced half smile. The poor guy looked like a deer in the headlights, ready to flee at a moments notice. 

        "You're serious?" Keith asked. The warm feeling was back, but this time it was smaller, more gentle. Like a calm fondness instead of burning passion. It felt nice. But the circumstance wasn't ideal as Lance looked terrified of Keith's reaction to the question.  

        "Y-you don't have too I just thought it would be easier since my house is close to the zoo in case you still wanted to work here-" Lance didn't make eye contact with the Widget as he stammered away, words and sentences clustering together in a rant of worry.

        And at that moment Keith realized that despite their obvious differences, he and Lance were the same. They both feared rejection of others, so when they spoke up about anything they were super awkward about it. Like Lance was now.

        "And it would be a lot cheaper for rent because we'd have two of us covering the bills and stuff like that." Keith chuckled a bit at the realization of the connection that they both had. 

        "Lance," Keith spoke in a quiet, gentle and fond voice, resting his forehead on his hand letting the long hair hanging in front of him like a curtain. Looking through the strands he smiled towards the frantic young adult seated beside him in the old run down blue truck. He remembered the last time Lance was like this that one time they were sitting alone in the living room together.

        "It would also make sure neither of us is late for work because if one of us sleeps in the other could just wake you up and stuff like that but that's not all that important I suppose considering I own the zoo-"

        "Lance!" A bit louder this time, Keith took his free hand and grasped Lance's shoulder. "Calm down. Just breathe for a sec you're overwhelming yourself without needing too. Give me time to answer, alright?" He kept the quiet tone, hoping that it would help keep them both relaxed. Keith felt fine this time around. He didn't feel flustered or anything. Just really happy that Lance wanted him to stay. He wasn't going to say 'Hey you can handle yourself so you can leave now'. Lance just wanted him to stay there. With him.

        "Sorry I was rambling-" Keith gave Lance's shoulder a small squeeze and the boy shut his mouth, locking eyes with the owner of the comforting hand. In a single day the tables had turned, and now it was Keith calming Lance. Humans really were confusing. But so was he. 

        "Yes, I'd like to continue living with you. To be honest I haven't really been looking at places of my own anyways. Wishful thinking I suppose, heh." Keith chuckled a bit. Lance's gaze moved to where the Widget's hand rested, gaze lingering there before flickering back up to Keiths eyes. Thinking that is a was a bad thing Keith averted his own eyes and pulled away. "Y-yeah, I'd like to keep living there."

        A small flushed tone grew on Lance's face as he cleared his throat. "Yeah, cool, good. uhm........yeah." He moved to open his door and climb out of the truck. "I uh, I guess I'll see you after work?" Lance asked, about to close the door. "Wait, no, dumb question, of course. I'm your ride home-" Finely toned hands met tanned forehead as Lance facepalmed. "I'm just gonna go now. Bye!" And before Keith could say anything, Lance was speed walking away. "I am such an idiot-" He heard the Cuban mutter.

        Keith climbed out of the truck and watched over the hood as the brunette stormed away to his section of the zoo. 

        "Well, that was awkward." Pidge pointed out from a nearby tree.

        "PIDGE WHAT THE HELL!?"


	23. Familiar Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see a familiar face~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OFFICIAL TUMBLR PAGE IS UP  
> LINK HERE -----> https://voltron-irobot.tumblr.com

        Keith was nervous, to say the least. He was nervous about a lot of things at this point. About Lance, about Pidge, about Violet. He was pretty much anxious in general when it came to humans that he knew.  And it wasn't just them, it was what they thought about him. Lance saw Keith as a human, he knew that. But one slip up and he would find out that Keith was, in fact, the exact opposite of a human, let alone anything living. And Keith was pretty sure he wasn't alive.  
            He was nervous about Pidge because he didn't know about her or her intentions. Whether she saw him as a robot or a human, the girl talked about him like he was a child experiment. She had only asked the Widget to visit her at her house later to do research and tests on him, not to hang out like Lance had done.  
            Everyone else, Hunk, Shiro, Allura, and Coran were all on the same page as Lance was. They all saw him as human as far as he knew. But that only meant he had to be extra careful. Only two people knew what he was and he only trusted one of them. But trust didn't ease the nervousness that kept him on edge.  
            The thought of Pidge having that much power over him had Keith pacing and twitchy throughout the day as he tended to the reptiles. Luckily not many of the customers visiting the zoo seemed interested in the stuffy humid building. It was a nice day outside so people were admiring the outdoor enclosures.   
            With a small sigh, Keith grabbed the cricket container and walked out the back door and into the warm sunshine filled outdoors. The animals didn't need to be fed again until after closing time, but he felt like using the excuse to get out of the humid building. Water didn't affect his systems, but that didn't mean he liked it. The only time he was okay with getting a bit wet was when he was helping feed the hippos. One time however when feeding them a watermelon the female had gotten a bit too curious and accidentally pushed him into the water part of the enclosure. Lance had laughed, obviously, but Keith had been grouchy the whole time.  
            And so, Keith deemed that he didn't like water. Standing in the warm afternoon sunshine only confirmed that further. He liked the intense heat even if it did set his cooling system into overdrive. Maybe Pidge could upgrade that for him later when he visited her.   
            "Ah, there you are! I couldn't find you inside." A voice said from behind him. Turning around, Keith saw Hunk walking around the corner of the building, a friendly smile on his face. To Keith, this boy looked like the absolute perfect example of innocence. Hunk kind of reminded Keith of Hippos. He liked Hippos.   
            "Yeah, it's kind of stuff in there," Keith commented, putting the cricket container away. "It's a nice day out so there aren't a lot of people coming inside." He wiped the palms of his hands on his pants to wipe moisture from the building off. He couldn't sweat but with how moist the air was inside it sure looked like he was.   
            "That's actually why I'm here. Shiro sent me to let you know you can close up the building early today and head over to his section. He wants you to start working with Red today." Hunk pointed out. If Keith wasn't paying attention he would have missed the look of pity cross over the boy's face.   
            "What about Lance?" Keith asked. "Since he's the manager shouldn't he be the one saying if I should close up early?" Now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen or heard anything from Lance ever since the truck incident this morning. He would have asked Pidge but the girl had vanished after Keith scolded her for eavesdropping.  
            "Shiro already got the ok from him." Hunk said casually. Meanwhile, Keith raised an eyebrow in thought. Typically Lance would tell him directly or be in the lion enclosure to help or watch. Was he avoiding him because of this morning?  
            "Oh, um. Ok, I'll be there in a bit. I gotta lock up before I head over." He stated, reaching for the keys clipped to his belt. Hunk's smile grew a bit before he grabbed his own keys.   
            "I'll close up for you, dude. Gives me a break from all the kids in my section of the zoo, haha." The larger male said with a lighthearted chuckle. "Don't get me wrong, I love kids but they can definitely be a handful sometimes." Keith nodded with a smile. He saw Pidge as a child so he could relate. She may have been 16 but she acted like she was 12 most of the time.   
            "Well, I guess I'll get going then. It was nice talking with you. I didn't get to talk to you much when we all went out to the arcade that one time. Maybe we could hang out again some other time?" He suggested, wanting to get to know the very friendly human more. So far Hunk was his second favorite human out of those he had met.   
            "That'd be cool." with a shrug, Hunk moved to go into the building. "I'll talk to you later then, good luck with Red!" Waving to Keith Hunk vanished into the humid reptile house, letting out a waft of warm damp air into the hot spring air. With summer just around the corner, the days had been growing longer and hotter.  
            With a boost in his mood, Keith let the smile stay on his face as he started to walk to the lion's den. The zoo was a bit packed, full of people bringing their kids in for the nice weather. He could see children yelling with excitement while pointing at animals who were just lazing about. It amazed him how people could be so impressed by the simple things sometimes.  
            Noticing a few photographers wandering around as well, the Widget faintly wondered if he should get an actual camera. Sure he had one built into his optical system and could take pictures just by blinking, but he couldn't share those pictures with anyone. If Keith had an actual camera he could take pictures without it being a secret and he could share his pictures with Lance. The pictures of Lance, however, were private.  
            Now that he thought about it, getting a camera sounded like a good idea along with a phone and other things that people typically had. Payday was this coming weekend since he didn't have to pay for things like gas, rent or insurance a phone was definitely in his price range.   
            Lost in his thought, Keith ended up not paying attention to where he was going and clolided right into a young woman. She also had not been looking where she was going, distracted by something on her phone. Being built to be sturdy, Keith was mostly unfased by the bump. The lady ,however, was not. The impact has sent her falling backwards towards the ground, a surprised yelp leaving her mouth.   
            Quick to react, Keith reached out and caught the crook of her arm, keeping her from falling completely to the ground. I am so sorry about that!" Keith apologized. His eyes were wide with concern as he pulled the woman to her feet. She didn't seem to have dropped anything and didn't appear hurt. But he scanned her to be sure.  
            He froze, looking at her as she dusted off her clothes with a light chuckle. The scan showed who she was. He knew her.  
           "No don't worry about it, that was my fault. I should've been watching where I was going and not my phone-" Looking up, the woman froze as well, locking eyes with him.  
            "Lauren?"  
            "Keith?"  
            The two spoke at the same time, shocked and confused. Laurens' voice held some relief to it.   
           "Wh-what are you doing here?" Keith asked warily, taking a step back from her. She knew he belonged to Violet. She knew he was a machine. She worked directly for the man who had created him. This wasn't good. She could blow it all right here and right now. And yet, he wasn't afraid of her. Why?  
           "I could ask you the same thing. I was here looking for you actually." Lauren showed him her phone screen, which had a map with a little red dot where they stood. That dot was himself apparently. "I guess I found you." She said with a triumphant smirk. Once looked at Keith's face and her smirk dropped. "You ok?"  
           "Why are you looking for me?" He asked a bit bluntly. "Did Violet send you to find me?" Maybe he could convince Lauren to let him stay here, that Violet had told him to leave and not come back, that he was just following orders. But she had other plans.   
    With a small chuckle, she put her phone into her back pocket and crossed her arms. "No, Violet did not send me. Sam did."  
          "Wait, Sam as in Samual Holt? The one who made me?" Keith pointed to himself in confusion. He didn't belong to Sam anymore, so why would the scientist be looking for him? There wasn't a logical explanation for it unless Sam planned on taking him back, or if Violet had asked Sam to reprogram Keith.   
          "Yes, that Sam. He wanted me to give you a message. He would have sent it directly to you, but anything you receive, Violet gets notified." Lauren looked around before taking Keith's hand and pulling him out of the crowded area. The brunette found a spot shaded by trees that were mostly vacant before speaking again. "Sam knows that you don't want to be found by her, so he sent me here to let you know that and a few other things. Because I was the first human you were in contact with, Sam trusted me the most to find you." She started explaining.  
          "Wait, he doesn't want me to be found by her? Why?" He asked.  
          "Because I was right when I said you were special the night you were to be shipped out. You are different from other Widgets. I can't tell you why you're different, but it's to the point where Violet was not a good choice to send you. Sam has been monitoring you and how you react to things. He quite enjoys the fact that you're making yourself seen as a human to other actually."  
          "He wants me to act like a human? That makes no sense. And why was she a 'bad choice' to send me to? I thought she picked me?" If robots could get a headache he would sure as hell have one right now. Nothing Lauren was saying to him made sense.   
          "Ok, just hear me out. You can ask questions later so just shut up and listen." She demanded firmly. At the direct order, Keith shut his mouth.   
         "Yes, ma'am." He answered, a robotic tone taking over his voice. He had no control over his actions when he was told to do something.  
         "Ok, Keith. You were made a bit different than other Widgets. Sam set it up to where it was coincidentally Violets birthday that you were put on display so her father would get you for her. She ran a place filled with animals so you could learn about living things. However, he didn't expect you to develop a crush on her. Cute, but her reaction was not. When you ran off he was frantic, trying to locate you. Once he did he was actually quite relieved to see that you had become attached to animals and ended up at a zoo."   
         She paused to clear her throat. " When you started living around here, Sam was getting much better results of your emotions, thus why Violet hasn't found you yet. He won't let her. If she did she would have you dismantled for being defective. It's all a big experiment to make sure you are as human as possible. I can't tell you why, because Sam didn't tell me what he did to make you special." Lauren let out a breath when she was done talking. "Damn that was a mouthful. Please don't make me repeat that-"  
        So he was a science experiment. That's what this all was. The only reason he was here is that someone wanted him to be here for science.  
        "That's not all he said though. He knows you found his daughter too. Trust her, she knows what she's doing. She doesn't know who you are though. The whole experiment, Pidge doesn't know about. But keep an eye on her. Since your here she's at risk. There are people besides Violet trying to find you and they're looking for her too."  
         "Slow down. Who's looking for us?" He asked. All of this information was becoming hard to process. "And why?"  
         "I don't know. That's all Sam told me." Lauren replied with a sigh. "I want to help you, I really do. And this is how I do it. Don't let anyone know what you are or who made you, and watch over Pidge. Sam will explain everything himself when he thinks you're ready." Looking around, Lauren sighed yet again. "I really wish I could tell you more, but I can't. Keep doing what you've been doing, and trust Pidge."   
         "When will I be ready to know what the hell is going on?" Keith could feel his personality chip kick in as he started to get a bit irritated. He made his anger clear he stood up straighter and furrow his brows. Lauren seemed to shrink back a bit when he did this. Keith backed off immediately. He hadn't wanted to scare her. "Sorry. I'm just, really confused right now.   
        "I know, I am too. Believe me on that." Scratching the back of her neck, Lauren pulled a small flash drive out of her pocket. "This has my email and phone number and all of your information that I could pull from the systems on it. If you need anything, ANYTHING at all, don't hesitate to message me. Got it?" She asked, offering the small computer stick to him. "I know you already have your programmed data but this is all of the programmings from the headquarters computers. There's a list of names there of people you can trust. You can add other people to it if you think they're ok."  
         Keith took ahold of the small device and rolled it in his hand, examining it. "The people who are looking for me and Pidge, they won't hurt us if they find us, will they?" He asked fearfully. If people lives were in danger then that made a lot of things different.   
        "I don't think they'll hurt Pidge. But you? You aren't classified as human so there's no telling what they'll do if they get their hands on you. There aren't laws against killing a machine." She winced a bit. "Just.....be careful, ok?" She looked up at Keith a nervous, yet hopeful look in her eyes. Despite not knowing Lauren all that long, Keith was fond of her. He considered her a close friend at this point. Not as close as he felt with Lance, but definitely close.   
        "Yeah, I will. I just hope whatever is going on passes by. It's all just too confusing for me. And I'm a walking computer!" He said, a joking manner in his voice. The result was pleasing, as Lauren started to laugh at the comment.  
        "Well, I have to go now. I don't know when I'll see you again, but I hope it's soon." The girl sighed and started walking, shoulder brushing against Keith's arm lightly.  
        "See you around I guess." He stated in reply. Keith really did hope to see her again. That girl was the only one besides himself who was confused with all of this. At least he had someone to be confused with. As he had said before, being alone sucked.  
        "Oh, and Keith, I have to say I admire your taste in men~" Leaving Keith sputtering and turning a bright shade of red, Lauren vanished into the crowds with a hand on her hip. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Taste in men? Who the heck was she talking about-  
        Oh. She meant Lance. Damn it.  
        Lauren and Pidge had more in common than he thought. Lauren had mentioned that she and Sam had been monitoring his emotions. So apparently the three of them, Sam Lauren and Pidge thought that he liked Lance. Great.  
        But they weren't wrong, were they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OFFICIAL TUMBLR PAGE IS UP  
> LINK HERE -----> https://voltron-irobot.tumblr.com


	24. Gaining Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We delve into Red a bit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit short and choppy due to lack of time this week to type it, my apologies! Next chapter will be better I promise.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Keith asked nervously. He and Shiro were in the lion pen standing side by side in front of the gate that had Red inside of it. The Blue and Yellow were lazing around with nothing better to do while Green sat with Pidge on top of the rock pile like last time. Black was laying down calmly behind Shiro, tail flopping lazily as he sunbathed.

"You'll have to start working with him directly if you want him to listen to you. If it makes you feel any better, Black didn't listen to me for the first few weeks, but I got there eventually. Patience yields focus. Remember that." The taller male stated, placing his one hand on his hip. He wore a long sleeve shirt, but the sleeve where there was no arm was tied up in a tight not so it wasn't hanging loosely. 

Keith wondered why Shiro hasn't bought one of those high tech prosthetic, but just like widgets, they were probably far too expensive. He seemed to be managing just fine without one as it seemed.

"Patience yield focus? Where'd you hear that?" He asked curiously, looking up at the amputee.

"Before I joined the army I lived with an elderly man. He said stuff like that all of the time whenever things were looking down. A lot of it stuck after he passed away." Shiro explained. "He was a good man and I just wish to pass on his teachings. I figured you were a good place to start." Offering a kind smile Shiro walked over and placed his hand on the lever to the gate where Red was held. "So, you ready?" He asked.

Shifting his weight, Keith gave a small nod. "Ready as I'll ever be I suppose." He answered. 

Using his one arm, Shiro pushed up on the lever, and the door slid open. And nothing happened. "Um, you sure he's in there?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, just give him a minute. He liked to try to catch people by surprise." Shiro answered, walking away from the open door and back over to where Black was laying. 

"That's a bit unsettling," Keith commented.

A loud snarl filled the air and Red dashed out of the shadowed building and out into the sunlight. Charging right at Keith, Red let loose a loud roar. Just before he could even get close enough to attack, Black was there stepping between them. They knew that Red would attack seeing as Keith was a stranger, so Shiro made sure that Black was always near the violet-eyed male to keep him safe.

Seeing the alpha male in the way, Red stood down and instead of attacking he crouch and snarled, as if daring Keith to move out from behind Black. 

Just like when Coran was doing the checkups last week, Keith simply stared back with his purple eyes locked with the golden eyes of the lion. The lion wanted a challenge, and Keith would gladly give it to him. 

Eventually, red stopped snarling and backed off. The lion turned to walk away, but they weren't finished yet. 

"You need to get his attention before you can do anything else. He only listened to me because Black listens to me, but you don't have that luxury. Find out how to get his attention on your own." Shiro stated. 

With a determined glare, Keith stepped out from behind Black, causing Shiro's eyes to widen in surprise. "That's not a good idea." He pointed out. Keith shook his head. 

"No, Red won't listen if I'm standing where I'm out of his reach," Keith explained. As if to prove him right, Red stopped walking away but did not yet turn around to face him. The large lion behind him seem to understand and went to return to Shiro's side. 

"Just be careful ok?" Shiro asked. Keith nodded, eyes never once leaving the smaller lion in front of him. 

Of course, he went with the reckless option and took a step forward, approaching the light furred feline. As if sensing him getting closer the lion turned to face him, growling deeply to try and scare him off.

It didn't work of course, and he kept walking closer. Each step made Red growl louder, and Shiro grew more concerned. "Whatever you're doing I really don't think it's a good idea. Allura tried the same thing and almost got her hand bitten off." He explained. 

"I may not have known you all very long, but I'm pretty sure Allura tried playing nice with Red which is where she went wrong. As I've said before, he wants someone to stand up to him. Which is what I'm going to do." Keith explained. Allura may seem intimidating but when it ca,e to animals, she was soft. It worked for most, but Red was different. 

"He just needs to be shown who's boss. So far the only one he see's in charge is Black, not you." Keith said to Shiro. Now he was only a few feet away from the lion. Red looked up at him, body lowered to the ground to where his underbelly was touching the dirt. Up on the rocks, Pidge and Green were watching them with curiosity and slight worry.

"That make's sense I suppose, but that doesn't mean he won't attack you." Shiro anxiously shifted his weight from one foot to another. 

Keith was now nearly close enough to touch the growling ball of fur. He really wanted to, but he couldn't. Not yet. He had to make absolutely sure this would work. 

Kneeling, Keith lowered himself to the ground within arms reach of the lion and sat down. Now at the Lions level, the two looked at each other with piercing gazes. 

Slowly, Keith let himself relax and he extended a hand forwards. Red growled louder, snarling viciously, but he did not bite or attack. 

With his breath held, Keith let his hand rest on the lion's forehead gently. And the growling stopped.

"Heh, not so tough now are you?" Keith said. Slowly, he moved his hand in a stroking manner, petting the behind the feline's ears. Very quickly the lion started to purr. After a moment, Keith gathered the courage and moved forwards more. This prompted him to pet Red with both hands now, a smile gracing his face. 

"Holy crap," Pidge stated, She and Green had moved off the rock to stand by Shiro. "He actually won him over," He mumbled in surprise. With a weird sounding meow, Red rolled over and allowed his belly to be pet. 

"You just wanted a friend who understood you, didn't you?" Keith asked as the lion purred and rolled around under the friendly touches. "Well, I hope this means you won't try to attack me anymore. Feel free to bite Lance though. Bring his ego down a bit." He heard Pidge snicker a bit behind him.

"Well, that went better than I had expected." Shiro pointed out. "I guess we're done for the day? We can work on commands tomorrow I suppose." With a shrug, Shiro pet his own lion as it nudged his leg. 

"Allura's gonna be ticked when she finds out that Keith got Red to roll over before she could." Pidge pointed out. "Man is he in for a world of pain when she hears about this, ha."

Eventually Red lost interest in being pet before lazily standing up and walking over to another area to sunbathe. Having been kept inside all day made him a bit sun-starved so it was now his designated nap time. Nap time was ruined however when Blue decided to have a bit of fun and pounced on him, starting a small mock fight.

"Well, that was interesting," Pidge commented. "Anywho, I'm out. Later losers. I'll wait for you in the parking lot, Keith." Keith had almost forgotten that he was going over to her house today. He faintly wondered if He should tell her about what Lauren had said.

"I'm going to work with Black for a bit more today. I've noticed his foot cramping a bit after performances so I'm going to help him do some stretches. I'll see you later?" Shiro asked. Keith nodded.

"Yeah, I'll see you around I guess." With that said, the Widget turned and left the lion pen, heading back up to the main part of the zoo. Once up, he figured he would go look for Lance to let him know what happened with Red. And maybe find out why the heck Lance had been so nervous that morning in the truck.


	25. Upgrades (1/3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The best way to a man's heart is through his closest friends. So maybe Pidge can help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter is a bit shorter as it has three parts that will be uploaded over the next two days! Bonus chapters I guess you could say.  
> 3 new updates this week! Woohoo!

The rest of the day passed by rather quickly for the Widget as he didn't really have anything to do. Hunk was taking care of his section of the zoo and since the day was nearly over, it would be useless to go and take over now. So instead he spent his last remaining moments at the zoo to try and find Lance but the Cuban boy was being very evasive, always one step ahead of him. He wondered if what Lance was doing was intentional or not. Had that morning flustered and embarrassed him that much? Sure it was a big question, but the two had been living together for a while now, so why was asking him to stay such a big deal?

So many things were confusing. What he was, what Lauren had told him, Lance avoiding him, people apparently having it out for him and Pidge, and many other things that he could list for hours. Life was just so.....difficult. Difficult to figure out at least. Then again he technically wasn't a living thing. He wasn't alive. Keith seemed to forget that from time to time.

The way that things were going, he wasn't being treated like a Widget, like a machine. He was in the role of a human being and that's just how it was now. He did human things. Keith ate, drank, and while he can't technically 'sleep' he could enter a mode where he halfway shut down, but it was close enough, he supposed. But.....he wasn't human. He never would be no matter how hard he tried.

"Yo, you ready to head out?" A familiar voice asked. Keith had heard her footsteps approaching from his right, the light tapping and scraping sound of her green sneakers against the ground much softer than that of the others work boots. The girl seemed to be the only one that refused to follow the work dress code protocols. Sneakers instead of boots, shorts instead of long jeans, bracelets, you name it, she had it. Instead of the color-coded tee shirts, she usually wore graphic tee's with something about either meme's or aliens on them, and sometimes it was both. Occasionally Keith would see her hiding the space cat shirt underneath a baggy hoodie that was way too big to be hers. According to Allura, the stolen sweater was Hunks.

"Yeah." He replied. The girl was wearing his second personal favorite shirt (The first being the space cat one). This one was a plain white one with an alien face on the front with a bold lined text reading 'I don't believe in humans' beside it. He found it ironic in sense of the whole robot situation. Humans were really hard to believe with just how confusing and questionable they were.

"So, before we go to my place, care to explain why Lance was running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Don't get me wrong, it's fun to watch him scamper around like that, but I'm curious as to why." The girl said, leaning against one of the zoo benches. Her hair was a complete mess and hanging in her face, but Keith doubted that she cared one bit. 

"He's been acting like this all day and I'm not sure why. He started acting like that this morning after what happened in the truck." Keith explained, a single hand coming up to run at his forehead and push his own bangs out of the way. The Widget new a haircut was probably a good idea, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Keith liked the long hair and how it hung near his shoulder and covered his eyes. 

"I may have been in a nearby tree eavesdropping, but I only heard bits and pieces. What did you guys talked about anyway? It obviously left Lance a mess." The girl stated, turning to face him with a curious eyebrow raised. 

"I don't know much about human privacy, but I doubt Lance would want me telling you seeing as he won't even talk to me about it," Keith commented. Keith respected Lance, that much he knew. One of the things he was programmed to do was to keep personal information, well, personal. 

"Yes, but you do know I can just tell you to tell me. We both know you can't disobey a direct order. And considering how new of a model you are, you don't have very many people on your priority list other than Lance, your previous owner, and the person who made you." She smirked, devilishly. "Which means my orders and requests, you can't say no too." The look in her eyes said one thing and it sent shivers down Keiths spine. The piercing amber colored eyes said I have power over you. And she knew it too. When Lance and Violet weren't there, she could make him do whatever she wished. Maybe agreeing to go to her house for the day was a bad idea after all. 

"Please don't....." Keith said in a small voice that he himself almost didn't hear. His violet eyes were wide with a familiar feeling he hated so very much. Fear coiled in his middle, twisting painfully as he backed away form the girl a bit. Looking at her, the robot noticed that her intimidating look had given way to a puzzled gaze, her shoulders slumping a bit as she squinted at the Widget with what seemed like minor surprise. 

After a moment, another emotion looked as if it had been slapped onto the girls face and wiped the others clean off. "Holy crap I am so sorry!" She blurted, realizing that she had terrified the poor guy. Robot or not, he had feelings and she just hurt them big time. "I knew you felt some degree of emotion I just didn't know they were that sensitive holy crow-" Pidge held up her hand nervously to try and calm Keiths slight panic and obvious discomfort as how close the girl was. It was only a few feet, but it felt more like inches with the words she had said moments ago. "I didn't mean to spook you like that, honestly. I'm just not used to Widgets reacting like you do." She stammered, trying to explain her reasons for the previous conversation.

"I-it's fine. You didn't know." He replied, voice a bit weak. Another thing he hated about emotions was how they affected his body no matter how hard he tried to keep it from happening. Keith supposed it was from lack of experience seeing as humans had better control of their emotions and reactions than he himself did. 

"Bull crap it's fine. I misunderstood, and hurt you. In my opinion, that makes me a bad friend. Which I apologize for. You didn't do anything to deserve me saying that to you seeing as you have no control over things like that. It was unfair of me." She said, voice level and calm the whole time as if explaining something to a child. Technically speaking, she was. Keith was young and new to this world that he understood so little about. And now it was her job to teach him.

It left Keith speechless. She wasn't wrong. It hadn't been his fault that he couldn't choose these things. The programming he had didn't permit him to change the priority list or the rules of robotics, so he was left powerless against anyone with a voice. 

"I'll make it up to you. I can get you some cool upgrades at my place while we chat. Sound cool?" Pidge asked. It took a moment, but Keith nodded slowly at her, eyes never once leaving her. It stung a but when a guilty look flashed across her eyes and she looked away from him. He hadn't meant to make her feel guilty. 

"Well, let's get going before traffic gets too bad. I know a few shortcuts though so we should be fine. I live with my parents a couple miles from here just out of the city limits where the actual houses are." Pidge explained as she turned to start walking. Keith pushed his weight off of the bench he had been leaning against and was quick to follow the short human as she strutted away. 

The walk was short seeing as Keith had been hanging around the main entrance anyways. He had hoped to see Lance, but the blue truck sat untouched, the driver nowhere in sight or anywhere nearby. A heavy sigh left him, despite the fact that he had no real lungs to breath with. But Keith felt like doing it.

"Man, whatever you guys talked about must've been tense," Pidge commented, causing Keith to peel his gaze away from the truck and back to the girl leading him. The parking lot was only half empty, a few people leaving at the same time that they were as the day slowly came to an end. Looking ahead, Keith nearly burst out laughing when he saw a tiny neon green moped parked next to a whole row of massive and rather impressive motorcycles. It stuck out like a sore thumb with its minuscule size yet very vibrant and odd choice of color. 

"Do you take care of the green portion of the zoo because it's your favorite color, or is it your favorite color because of the zoo?" Keith asked as the girl kneeled to unlock the chain that kept the tiny two-wheeled vehicle from being stolen. Once it was off she stashed the chain in her backpack (Which was also green, what a surprise) and moved the moped from its spot.

"That's my own little secret that only Shiro knows. Then again Shiro knows everything." Pidge commented, putting on a plain black helmet. It was more like a bicycle helmet than a road safe helmet but it worked. According to the city rules, Helmets only had to be worn under the age of 18, making it technically legal for Keith. Then again there were no helmet protocols for Widgets anyways. So it was fine for him either way.

"Get on, loser," Pidge said in a joking manner with a fake manly voice as she swung her leg over the moped seat and onto one of the pegs. The seat was just barley long enough to fit two people on it, so it would be a bit of an awkward ride for them. 

Regardless, he complied and got on behind her. Since he was taller, Keith only had to step over instead of swinging his leg over the seat. And since his legs were longer than hers, his feet had to be placed in front of hers, resting on the moped's frame and not the pegs.

"This thing wasn't meant for two people, was it?" He asked warily, placing his hands on her shoulders for something to hold onto. 

"Nope!" The girl said with a huge grin and a sassy tone to her attitude as she revved the engine, and then floored it, nearly sending Keith flying off the back with a girly yelp.


	26. Upgrades (2/3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets Pidge's mom

      Despite being the smallest motor vehicle Keith had ever seen, Pidge's moped could really move. Multiple times when she went full speed around turns or curves, he thought for sure the tiny bike would skid or flip over but it never faltered a single time. 

        "Dude your bruising my shoulders," Pidge said as they came to a stop at a red light. The widget quickly loosened his grip, not realizing he had been holding on so tight. The girl had a bad habit of making really sharp turns as he had realized. Definitely a new driver. Since she was only 16 the girl couldn't have been driving for more than a few months, and that worried him a bit. 

        "Well maybe if you didn't go so fast I wouldn't have to hold on as tight." As he spoke the light turned green and the moped sped forwards, nearly tossing Keith off again for the 4th time that day. 

        Luckily for him, the two made it to Pidge's house unscathed and unharmed. Keith's hair was a spiky mess, but that was his own fault for tying it back. Back when he and Lance had gone clothes shopping, the older boy had bought a pack of hair ties and headbands as a joke only to realize that Keith actually liked them and used them quite frequently. 

        Once the engine was off and they were parked in the safety of the driveway, Keith gladly climbed off of the moped and backed away to give Pidge room to hop off. "Y'know, I'm pretty sure you think my driving is bad, but Shiro would say otherwise. I've had to give him a lift for than once and he doesn't complain." The girl said as she stashed her helmet in a small compartment underneath the leather seat. After that, she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. 

        "Wait, Shiro can fit on this thing? I'm half his size and I can still barely fit on here with you." Keith commented as they walked up to the house. It was a fairly cozy looking house packed in a tightly crowded neighborhood. There was little to no yard space between each of the small buildings. 

        He saw a small red car parked in the garage as they walked up and onto the porch. "You're parents home?" Keith asked. 

        Quiznak. How the hell did he not think of this sooner? Sam was Pidge's dad. He lived here and Keith was about to waltz in there like it was no big deal. Thankfully, Pidge's answer sapped all the worry away from him.

        "Mom is, but dad's on a business trip right now in another city. He won't be back for a few weeks. Did you really think I would invite you into a house that has one of the only other people who can tell you're a Widget? Man for a high tech walking computer you can really be dumb sometimes. He is the guy who runs the company that made you so that's even more reason for you not to run into him."

        The conversation he had with Lauren came to mind, reminding him that Pidge didn't know. Sam already did know who and what he was. Apparently, he was the reason Keith was here in the first place. So it would have been rather awkward to run into Sam in his own home. 

        "And I texted my mom before we left so she knows you're here with me. Told her you were helping me with my robotics project tonight. Typically I do those on my own easily but it was a good excuse and you might actually be able to help me with some stuff." Pidge explained. "She will try and ask questions about you, but I can answer most of them for you so you don't have to worry about telling her anything you don't want her to hear. You somehow found loopholes for Lance's questions, but my mom can be very.....specific with her questions." 

        So anything he couldn't answer without revealing his secret, he would leave that to Pidge. It seemed easy enough to pull off.

        Pidge opened up the door and walked into the small home, the smell of something spicy cooking wafting out making the small girl grin with hunger. "Aw yeah, meatballs-" She said, jogging into the house with her bag bouncing against her back. 

        The two walked inside, a dim yellow glow from the evening light and yellow lights on the ceiling illuminating the room they had entered. Judging by the couch, recliner, and smile but nice looking tv stand, they were in the living room.

        "Pidge honey, is that you?" A friendly voice echoed from another room that was just out of view. It sounded very similar to Pidge's voice only quieter, and much softer. Another word Keith could think of to describe it was fragile, almost. It was faint, but something didn't sound right about it. It was welcoming, but there was something there that shouldn't be. It sounded almost like she was sick. Maybe he could ask about it later.

        "Yeah, it's me! I brought that friend I mentioned, so he's here too." Pidge replied, tossing her bag on the cream colored couch. Keith slipped his shoes off beside the door, thanking the fact that he didn't have foot odor as his red socks made contact with the cool wooden floor. Lance had insisted that he got the color relating to his portion of the zoo for ironic purposes. Pidge did the same shortly afterward, her neon colored shoes landing in a heap right beside's Keith's neat black ones. He noticed as she sprinted off to what he assumed was the kitchen that she was wearing mismatched socks. One was bright orange and the other was striped blue and white. It seemed fitting to her 'all over the place' personality.  

        "That's good! Dinner will be done in about a half an hour." The mother said. "It would have been done sooner but traffic was bad on the way from work." Light footsteps sounded as the older woman walked from the kitchen, through the dining room, and into the living room. The woman looked to be in her late forties, with light coffee colored hair and bright eyes to match Pidge's own. She was a bit taller than Pidge and barely a few inches shorter Keith was. A kind smile graced her face as she saw Keith.

        "You must be Keith, the new employee at the zoo. I'm Colleen Holt. It's quite the pleasure to finally meet you." She said, offering a dainty hand to him. A shimmering ring rested on her ring finger that felt cold against his hand as Keith shook her hand gently. 

        "It's nice to meet you as well, Mrs. Holt." He replied with a kind smile as he released her hand. She returned the smile with a small nod.

        "Well, I made meatballs for dinner, so if you would like to join us that would be absolutely wonderful," Colleen explained. "I suppose you two want to get started on that project until then. I'll call you both in when dinner's ready." Colleen turned to head back to the kitchen, waving to the two of them. "And Pidge? Try not to set the garage on fire again." There was a joking tone to her voice, but Keith could tell that there was truth behind it. He looked at Pidge with a raised eyebrow and she shrugged with an innocent look on her face. With a chuckle, Colleen returned to the kitchen.

        "Well, let's get started I guess." The young girl commented. She reached over and took Keith's hand before pulling him in another direction. She led him into the dining room where a wooden table sat in the center of the room with 4 chairs around it. To their right was the kitchen where Colleen was cooking dinner. On their left was a hallway with a door to the garage, a bathroom, and the stairs to the second floor where all of the bedrooms were. 

        She lead them down the hall to the garage door where light was filtering in from the setting sun rays outside. As she opened the door, he heard something behind them. Turning around, he could see Colleen still in the kitchen, but she was turned away from the counter and coughing into her sleeve. After a moment she stopped and cleared her throat before going back to what she was doing. With a last look of concern, The Widget followed Pidge into the garage. 

        The garage was a mess, to say the least. Spare robot parts lay scattered across the floor, some leaned up against old and new toolboxes that had drawers still open. The walls were littered with both mechanical and computer parts along with a few other things like pictures and boxes. In the far corner was a large table with 3 different lamps and machines sitting on it with a single space left clean for whatever projects she needed to do. And lastly, there was a massive whiteboard with a few markers sticking to it with magnets hanging from the large garage door. He doubted that it was ever opened. "So! Lots of things to do, not a whole lot of time to do them. Where do we start?" Pidge asked, grabbing one of the colorful markers to start making a list. "We have my actual project, running those tests on you to see what's up, and some upgrades." She said, writing them down. Next to upgrades she made a second collum with things like 'taste' or 'extra sensors' and things like that. A few program codes were written as well for extra virus protection. 

        But Keith didn't care about that right now. His violet eyes still filled with concern were lingering on the door they had just come through. "I think your mom might be sick." He said in a low voice. Pidge paused what she was doing and turned to look at him over her shoulder.

        "What do you mean? She seems fine to me." The girl replied, walking over to him.

        "I heard it in her voice when we got here and she was coughing just a minute ago. I didn't want to run a scan without permission but I'm pretty sure she's sick." It vaguely reminded him of what happened with Red back at the zoo on his first day on the job. He hadn't scanned the lion a single time but knew exactly what was wrong with him based on other small details. 

        "Well, if you're sure then I suppose it's fine if you want to scan her later during dinner. If she is sick, then you can mention that you saw her coughing and take a 'guess' at what it might be." Pidge said. "My plan if she asked what you did for a living was going to be biology since you like working with animals and stuff, and health does apply to biology so it's an easy coverup story." She had thought of nearly every question her mother would ask (Seeing as the same thing happened when she invited Lance over one time) and so she had thought of perfect answers for all of them. "For now though, let's see what we can upgrade on you. My project can wait for now since it's nearly done." She turned back to the whiteboard and muttered 'hopefully' under her breathe. "Any requests?" 

        Keith finally looked away from the door and to the whiteboard and the many ideas that had been written down by now. "How about taste?" He suggested, shrugging a bit. Lance had asked about Keith's favorite food multiple times and if he got a taste upgrade, he would be able to answer honestly with no loopholes. Widgets came with smell when they were made, but taste had been deemed useless sense. 

        "Wise choice oh friend of mine. I can have that installed for you before mom's done with dinner. How do spicy meatballs sound for your first flavor heh?" She asked with a teasing tone.

        "Wait, you can have that done in a few minutes? Installations and upgrades should typically take at least a few hours." He asked with his eyebrows raised curiously and with mild surprise. He wondered just how good this girl really was with technology. Good enough to figure out he wasn't human, easily. So, pretty good. 

        "You bet I can. I've been building and upgrading thing like you ever since I was 3. Tech has always been my thing so this is a piece of cake. So, go ahead and sit on that stool over there while I get my tools. I have to run some quick scans first but then it'll be easy going from there. Just some coding as new parts." As she spoke, the girl grabbed a small box and started scurrying around the garage, zipping from shelf to shelf as she grabbed various items and dumped them into the box. 

        As she did that., Keith made a mental list of all the foods Lance had showed him in the past few weeks so he could try them all again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Official story Tumblr: https://voltron-irobot.tumblr.com
> 
> All art can be found here, and there is an ask for any questions regarding the story, characters, widgets, and anything else!


	27. Upgrades (3/3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keiths tests out a new upgrade, and he quite likes it!

After 7 minutes of various tools being shoved into Keith's mouth and Pidge practically sitting on him to work, the girl declared that she was finished and freed him from where he sat. She asked him if he could taste or not but when he went to answer, it didn't sound right and his words were muffled. Having his jaw propped open for that long had made the joints stiff and nearly locked up. It took a moment of furious rubbing, but eventually, the joints righted themselves and went back to normal.

"So, feel different?" She asked, smiling proudly. His tongue definitely felt weird, but since he had never tasted anything before, he didn't know what it would be or anything like that. Just like his emotions, he wasn't sure how it would feel or what it was.

"I can't tell. My tongue does feel weird, kind of tingly almost. I don't know if it worked or not though." He said, licking his lips. There was definitely something there that wasn't there before. If it was a taste, he wasn't sure. 

"Hm." She said thoughtfully, looking around the room. "Oh! I know! Sit tight for a sec." Pidge stated as she scurried off from where she was standing beside Keith. He stood by her desk, looking at some of the various object laying on the wooden surface. Near the back, elevated carefully on a few plastic pegs, was an arm. It was a basic design, but unfinished with loose wires sticking out here and there. What stood out was the fact that it wasn't a Widget arm. This piece of machine looked like it was supposed to be a prosthetic. A quick scan confirmed that it had a wiring system highly similar to that of a human nervous system. 

"Hey, Pidge?" He asked, turning to look at the girl. She was grabbing a stool and moving over to one of the higher shelves with various boxes on it. 

"Yeah?" The girl asked as she set the stool up and climbed up onto it. 

"This arm. Is it for Shiro?" He asked curiously. She froze and turned to look at him with wide eyes.

"Uh, yes. But don't tell him please, it's supposed to be a surprise. I keep forgetting to cover it up when I'm not working on it." The girl explained, going back to what she was doing. "That's also the project I was talking about. But we can talk about the details on that after dinner." Seemingly finding what she was looking for, Pidge reached for a small white box on the far end of the shelf. With one hand, she gripped the edge of the shelf and reached with her other.

Keith knew she was going to fall even before her hand slipped and fell free from the edge. A familiar feeling tightened in his chest just like when that car had almost hit Lance the other day, and he was moving without even realizing it. "Pidge!" He shouted, dashing over to where she was falling from the stool. Quickly, he threw his forearm out and planted it against the wall, his other arm reaching over to snag Pidge's waist in the crook of his elbow.

The girl collided with his arm that was rested against the wall, saving her from the cement floor below. Quickly he stood her up and checked her for any injuries. "You alright?" He asked. 

"Yup! I'm good!" She stated, as if completely unfazed by the fall. Seeing Keiths confusion at her reaction, she explained. "You caught me, it's fine, chill out dude. There's nothing to worry about."

"Nothing? You just fell from one of the highest shelves in here! Why didn't you just move the stool over?" He asked, Once he was sure she was injury free, he backed up some to give her space. "Am I missing something are humans not as concerned with their safety like they should be because Lance did the same thing when he almost got hit by a car yesterday-" He was about to keep talking, but Pidge cut him off with an undignified squawk.

"He WHAT!?" She asked, looking at Keith with wide eyes for the second time that day. "Why the hell didn't he tell anyone?" The girl let out a frustrated sigh as she threw her head back. "That guy is impossible I swear-" She muttered, moving the stool and then climbing back up to the shelf. This time, Keith was right beside her in case she fell again.

"Tell me about it," Keith replied as she grabbed the box, successfully this time. "So what is even in the box?" He asked curiously, helping her down from the stool since her hands were full.

"My secret sweet stash. I keep all my junk food in here. I'm only sharing so we can see if you can taste now. That, and I want your first taste to be one of my favorite things so I know if it was worth it or not. This moment right here will determine our friendship-" The girl smirked as she set the box down on the clear spot of her table.

"Why was it all the way on the top shelf?" He asked as she opened the cardboard container.

"It's to keep my brother from-" Her sentence faltered, cutting off as she tensed up visibly. "Finding......it...." Keith watched as her hands fell to her side and her head hung a bit.

"Are you ok?" He asked tenderly, slowly reaching up to place a hand on her trembling shoulder. The moment he touched her, the widget could feel her rapid heartbeat through the shaking. "Pidge?" 

Now worried, he carefully maneuvered around her so that the young auburn haired teen was facing him. Her honey colored eyes were wide and filled with tears as she stared at nothing. After a short moment, the girl seemed to snap out of it, shaking her head and using the collar of her shirt to wipe her eyes. "Y-yeah, sorry about that. I'm fine...." She said, tone a bit shakey.

"Seriously, what just happened?" The Widget didn't believe the girl when she said she was fine. He thought back to when he had seen Violet. According to Lance, he had a similar reaction to what Pidge just did. Was it a panic attack?

"I just.....old memories. I can handle them most of the time but I wasn't ready for that one." She explained. The Widget thought back to just before Pidge had gone silent to try and figure out what had triggered that event. She had mentioned her brother. He pulled up the profile from his database and looked through the data to see if he could find-

"Stop," Pidge said. "I know you're researching him. Please don't. I'll tell you, just don't go snooping, please?" Pidge asked, cutting off Keith's thoughts. She hiccupped a bit, wiping away the rest of her tears. "He was in the military, the same group as Shiro actually. About two years ago things got really bad and his whole team was declared dead. Bout a year ago, they found Shiro and the teams bodies. Everyone's but my brothers." She said. The whole time, Keith was listening intently. For some reason, he felt he needed to hear this.

"Shiro doesn't remember anything that happened so I can't ask him if he knows anything. He has flashbacks and nightmares sometimes, but it's never anything helpful. We both think that he might still be alive somewhere. The military declared him dead, but they don't have any solid evidence." As the girl spoke, Keith felt something similar to a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He brushed it off as another weird side effects of emotions, seeing as he felt a pang of sadness for the girl as she explained the story.

"I'm sorry to hear." He replied, gaze averted to the floor. "You think he's still alive though?" Keith questioned. Finally recovered from the previous moment, the girl nodded.

"Absolutely," Pidge said. "I know you want to hear more and stuff like that, but can we change the subject please?" She asked. He could see the silent begging look in her eyes as she looked up at the Widget. Silently, he nodded. "Alright."

Turning around once again, she opened the box and pulled out a small ziplock bag of what looked like lollipops with a wide variety of colors. "Pick a color to try, this way we know if my upgrade worked or not. There's no doubt that it did, considering the fact that I made it, but hey. You never know." She shrugged and passed the baggie to Keith who grabbed it, already with a color in mind. 

Pulling out a blue one, he could hear Pidge laugh at him. "What?" He asked, looking at her with a single raised eyebrow.

"Of course you'd pick blue." She stated, crossing her arms with a smirk. She grinned wider as a plan formed in her mind. "Alright, since I shared a secret of mine, you owe me now. So, what happened in Lance's truck this morning that made Lance go nuts today?" She asked. 

"I guess I do own you, huh," Keith commented as he peeled the wrapper from the transparent blue sugary treat. "Lance asked me if I could continue living with him instead of moving into a place of my own." He started to say. Pidge's amused smirk slipped away and was replaced by extreme interest and curiosity. "Before I could even answer him he started rambling and wouldn't shut his mouth. After a bit a managed to get him to be quiet, and I said yes." Keith watched as the girl's eyes widened just a tad at the information. "When I said that he got really flustered and then ran off. He's been avoiding me since then and I have no idea why." As Keith spoke, he twirled the stick of the candy he was holding between his fingers, watching the blue part spin. 

"Holy crap..." Pidge said quietly after a moment. "I can't believe this. That's awesome." She said as if in her own world.

"It's awesome that he's avoiding me?" Keith questioned, suddenly very confused. 

"No no no. The reason that he's avoiding you. Not necessarily because of what happened, but how he felt when it happened." She stated. "Ok, so you supposedly have feelings, right? What did you feel during that conversation?" Pidge turned around to grab a pencil and a pad of paper from her desk before scratching down some quick notes that Keith couldn't see. 

"I'm not sure exactly since I'm new to the whole emotion thing. My chest felt kind of warm though. That tends to happen whenever I'm near him, to be honest. It feels nice though." As he explained, Pidge kept writing on her little notepad. 

"Dude, I didn't even think this could be possible. Not only are you the first technology to have actual emotions and feel stuff, but you connected with a specific human too." She said. The explanation was kind of vague so Keith decided to question her about it. They were still talking about Lance, right?

"What do you mean by connect? A human-computer connection is impossible, no one's done it yet." He stated. Human minds were ticky compared to a computer. They were set up similarly, sending signals to receive reactions, but no one had ever successfully bonded the two. Vr was the closest people had come but even then, there was no actual connection.

"An emotional connection. It's not a physical or technical one. Keith, I think you two like eac-" Pidge never got to finish her sentence.

"Dinners ready!" Collen called from the inside of the house, startling the two of them. 

"Hold that though, there are meatballs and I'm hungry," Pidge stated. Before Keith could say anything the girl was already on her feet and speedwalking back into the house, leaving the door open for him to catch up. His brow furrowed in confusion as he stared at the open door. What had she been planning on saying? 

With a sigh, he grabbed the discarded wrapper and carefully put it back on the blue candy before setting it down on the desk. He would just see if the taste upgrade worked with dinner. 

Standing up from the stool, he made his way to the dining room where Pidge was waiting and her mom was setting dinner on the table. He chose to sit across from Pidge, leaving one of the end table seats for Colleen so she could face them both. Once she was seated, the trio started filling their plates with the tasty-smelling meal. 

"So I've been told that you work at the zoo with Pidge and the others. How long have you been working there?" Pidge's mother asked curiously, passing Pidge the tray of spicy meatballs. a small puff of steam floated into the air as she scooped a rather large portion onto her plate. The girl was so tiny, where the heck was she going to fit all of that?

"Almost a month. I helped Lance find Pidge's dog and he offered me a job there not too long after. Speaking of which, where is Rover?" He asked. Another way to dodge questions about himself, in general, was to ask about them and their lives instead. 

"She tries to steal bits of dinner whenever I cook so she's staying upstairs until we're done. I'm trying to teach her not to beg but a certain someone-" Colleen looked at her daughter with a playful squint. "Likes to spoil the dog." 

"Hey, don't blame me. I can't resist puppy eyes." Pidge stated with a shrug, passing the tray of food to Keith once she was done piling food on her own plate. "Rover is just too adorable to say no."

"Uh huh, sure." Taking the serving spoon, he scooped a few of the tiny round spicy meatballs onto his plate, enjoying the smell they gave off. As he passed the dish back to Colleen, Keith noticed from the corner of his eye that Pidge was casting momentary glances at him, waiting for him to take a bite as she dug into her own food happily. 

Taking his fork, he pierced one of the meatballs onto the end of it and lifted it from the plate, allowing it a moment to let some of the red sauce drip off of it and back onto the plate. 

Without further hesitation, he bit into it. And his senses exploded with something he had never had before.

"Holy cow this tastes amazing-" Keith stated before digging in. He really liked spicy food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is a little surprise many of you have been waiting for~


	28. Just As Confused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see from Lance's point of view. Feelings are discussed and some confessions are made.

Lance was a lot of things. He was a flirt, a business owner, a lion tamer, a friend and so much more. A lot of weird and unusual things happened in his life leading him to do many things he never thought he would do. But one thing he did not ever expect to be was falling head over heels for a guy with a mullet. 

Who the heck even had a mullet these days anyway? I mean sure Keith pulled it off well but that still didn't make it ok. In Lance's head, mullets shouldn't be allowed. Or bowl cuts. Those were pretty bad too.

It wasn't just the hair that Lance was having issues with. Looks aside, Keith was amazing. He was smart, strong and nice to people. Everything that Lance could do, it always seemed that Keith could do better. It was frustrating at times. Lance had tried so many times to bond with Red, and Keith had done it on nearly the first try. When the black-haired boy had been in the lion pen with Shiro, Lance had been watching the whole time. 

First of all, how dare he be so good looking, and second of all, how dare he be so good at everything!? It didn't even look like he was trying!

With a groan, Lance flopped back onto his couch, staring at the white ceiling above. Earlier he had nearly forgotten that Keith was going to Pidge's house today and waited at the truck, only for Keith to not show up. It took 20 minutes of impatient pacing to realize where he had gone. 

"What is wrong with me-" The Cuban muttered to himself. He had openly avoided Keith because he was too scared to talk about what happened in the truck that morning. It was supposed to be a simple question, nothing complicated. But the perfectly practiced conversation as gone out the window the moment Keith had looked at him, and as simple as that his words had become a flustered and garbled mess. 

He didn't want to admit it, but Lance had grown rather fond of his housemate. It was nice having someone else in this massive house. He was used to living in a home that was always full of life and noise. Ever since he had graduated and moved out, things had been far too quiet for him. And now that there was someone to be here with him, he didn't want to let him go.

And thus the main reason that Lance had asked Keith to stay. He would never admit that to him though. That would be weird, right? They had known each other and lived together for nearly a month now, but Lance didn't feel ready to share stuff like that. It was far too personal of information to share with someone who was so closed up about themselves. 

Keith was like that a lot. Always blunt with his answers and never opening up about stuff to anyone. He seemed more open with Pidge than anyone else and that stung a bit. Lance like it when people opened up to him. He was a people guy that loved chatting with everyone he met. But Keith? Keith was the exact opposite of Lance. 

While Lance was open about everything and loved attention, Keith seemed to shy away from the spotlight and avoid talking about himself at all. It confused Lance to no end. What did he have to hide? Was he reserved like that because of the girl who turned him away? 

Lance has had plenty of men and women turn him down, but that never stopped the guy from trying again and keeping his upbeat personality. So why didn't Keith?

He had asked Hunk about it and even ranted to Shiro at some point in hopes for good advice on how to get Keith out of his shell, but neither of them had good answers for him. The only thing he got was that Shiro used to know someone who was kind of the same. Patience was the key, but Lance's patience was starting to wear paper thin. 

A knock on the front door startled him from his thoughts and he sat up on the couch, leaning over to see out of the window. He saw Pidge driving off on her moped and Keith standing on the porch. It was dark by now so the boy's pale face was illuminated by the soft yellow light above the door. Lance had made sure to leave it on for him.

"You live here too, you know you don't need to knock!" Lance hollered so Keith could hear him. Moments later he could hear the knob turn and the whoosh of air as the door swung open. Along with Keith, a cool night breeze swept into the living room where Lance laid. 

"Hey." Keith greeted, taking off his jacket and hanging it by the door next to Lance's.

"How'd it go?" Lance asked. With a smirk he tilted his head, trying to act normal even though he always felt nervous around Keith. He wasn't sure why. "Did Colleen interrogate you like she did with me?" 

The black-haired boy nodded with a light chuckle. "Yeah, she did." With ghostly silent footsteps, Keith walked over and sat down in the chair that was a few feet away from the couch. He almost scared Lance sometimes. He was just so....quiet. All of the time. 

"What did you do while you were over there? Last time I was there I was working on a research paper with Pidge" Lance commented. Not only was he curious, but he wanted to know just how close him and Pidge were getting. Not that it was any of his concern.

"Ironically, a project. Does she invite people over just to work on school stuff?" Keith questioned, sinking back into his seat. He looked kind of tired actually. 

"Probably. I've always wondered how the heck she became a genius. How does that much brain power fit into that sized person?" He teased, causing Keith to laugh a bit. That's another thing that made Lance frustrated and confused. Keith barely showed his feelings, like smiling or laughing, but when he did Lance could feel himself melt. 

"You and me both. 16 years old and one of the smartest people I know." Keith commented. 

"Yeah." Lance replied. The room fell into silence after that, the tension between the two growing slowly, as if daring one of them to speak up first. Crickets could be heard outside as the two sat there, each avoiding eye contact as they glanced around the room. 

To Lance, it was odd. Before he had asked Keith to stay that morning, things between them were normal. They were friends. Good friends. But the moment Lance had asked Keith to stay, and he even agreed to it, something changed. And because he had experience with stuff like this Lance knew exactly what that change was. 

He also knew that this kind of changes led to painful heartbreaks. And so this one time, he chose to try and ignore it. Thus why he had been avoiding Keith all day, he wasn't ready to face those feelings again for the hundredth time in his life. 

"So..." Keith stated, breaking the silence and holding his hands together neatly in his lap. "Is it ok if we talk?" He asked.

"We are talking," Lance stated rather bluntly. He felt bad when he saw Keith flinch a bit.

"I meant about this morning, and all day pretty much. Have you....been avoiding me?" Keith asked tenderly as if he wasn't sure whether he wanted to ask or not. Or he was scared to ask seeing as Lance was acting a bit hostile right now. Realizing this, Lance decided to relax and come clean.

"Kind of, yeah. Don't worry about it though. It's not your fault. I'm just being an idiot like usual." He admitted, laying back down on the couch and draping an arm over his face so he wouldn't have to look at the piercing violet eyes that gazed upon him. Just another thing that Keith had better than him. An unusual eye color that looked absolutely beautiful. In comparison, Lance saw his own eyes as plain and dull. Plenty of people had blue eyes.

"I don't think you're an idiot. Confusing sometimes, yeah, but not an idiot." Keith replied. Lance lifted part of his arm, looking at him with one eye. 

"What makes you say that?" The brunette asked. Keith shrugged a bit, shirt loose on his shoulders. 

"You do things I don't understand that much, but you have your reasons for them. That doesn't make you an idiot though. It's just a personality trait that you have I guess." The boy explained, looking down at the hands in his lap.

"I still feel like an idiot. I avoided you because I don't know how to face my feelings about crap." Letting his arm fall back down over his face, Lance sighed and let himself deflate and sink further into the couch cushions. Usually, he only admitted stuff like this to Hunk, but Keith was here now so he might as well as just vent to him instead. 

"That makes two of us." Keith stated, surprising the Cuban. "I don't even understand half of my emotions. Feelings are just weird. Almost as hard to understand as you sometimes."

"You calling me weird, smart guy?" Lance teased, smiling a bit. The mood was a bit lighter now, so he supposed it was ok for a few jokes. Keith chuckled a bit, nodding his head. "Well, since we're on the topic of feelings and such, how do you feel about all of this? Like, everything in general." He asked. Lance rolled over onto his stomach to where he was facing Keith now, propping a pillow under his chest for leverage. 

"That's a bit of a vague question, try something more specific," Keith stated, resting his head on his pale knuckles. 

"Hm, how about Red?" Lance questioned. "How do you feel about him?" Tilting his head, the older male watched as Keith looked up a bit as he thought about his answer.

"Relieved I guess. I honestly thought I was going to get my hand bitten off today. He just wanted a challenge. That lion has a sense of personal pride and he just didn't want to be babied. So I didn't baby him, and he's ok with me now. So I guess I feel kind of impressed with him and myself." He explained, occasionally waving his hand as he spoke. 

"Huh, that's actually kind of cool." Lance commented, scratching his chin with a yawn. He would have to go to bed soon so e decided to hurry the pace with the conversation. "How do you feel about living here? I know I asked the same thing this morning, but how do you feel about living here permanently?" He asked, fidgeting a bit and looking at Keith for his reaction. 

"I'm not sure actually. That's one of the things I'm confused about. I'm mostly wondering why you want me to stay here, but I'm also glad that you want me here, I suppose. The last person I lived with kind of booted me out with nothing so I guess I'm just really happy that you want me to stay."

Now Lance felt like a jerk. He hadn't even considered that into this whole situation. Her was Lance, all worried about how bold and weird he must seem, only to realize that Keith was scared to be rejected and pushed away again. Damn, now he felt kind of selfish. 

"I.......I didn't think about that. If you're wondering why I asked you to stay then forget literally everything I said this morning. It's not for those dumb reason like saving on gas or rent money or anything like that. You're just a really cool dude that I like hanging out with and I have fun when I'm with you. I guess I just didn't want you to leave yet....." He confessed, shoulders slouching a bit as he let his gaze fall down to the floor.

"To be honest with you, I didn't really want to leave either. I like it here, a lot actually. I'm kind of glad I got kicked out of my last place since I ended up here. I like it here much better." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Keith's eyelids droop a bit. Both of them were exhausted from the day and obviously needed some rest. Keith seemed to notice this as well, leaning forward in his seat with a deep breath.

"That's good i suppose. I'm glad we cleared some stuff up though. Again I am really sorry about avoiding you. I wasn't mad at you or anything I just-" Keith cut him off, finishing his statement for him.

"Just as confused as I was. It's fine. At least we worked it out." Mostly. There was still a lot of things Lance had questions about, but he would wait to ask those. His mother had always told him subjects like these were better taken care of when tended to over time instead of all at once. So he would wait. Even with his impatience, he would wait.

"Yeah. Well, I say it's bedtime. I'm beat!" Lance announced, rolling off the couch and onto his feet. Standing up, he fixed his shirt (He still hadn't changed since work) and stretched his arms over his head. Keith stood up and did the same. That was another thing Lance noticed about the strange boy. He seemed to mimic the body language of others he was around, mostly him as it seemed. Whenever they were standing side by side, Keith would copy Lance and put his hand on his hip. It was a bit odd. Maybe he was just trying to fit in more.

"It is getting kind of late. If it's ok with you, can we talk again tomorrow? This whole thing cleared a lot of stuff up and I liked it a lot." Keith said once they were both done stretching. 

"Yeah, I guess so. Don't see why not." Lance replied, turning to walk to his room.

"Cool," Keith said as he made his way over to the stairs to where the guest bedroom, now his permanent room, was. 

As he made his way down the hall, Lance wrestled with a thought in his mind, debating whether or not to voice it. The seconds ticked by with each step his housemate made up the flight of stairs to the second floor. Once he reached his door, the blue eyes playboy made up his mind. "Hey, Keith?" He called down the hall, hoping his voice would reach up to the stairs.

"Yeah?" Came the soft reply. It sounded closer than he thought, meaning that Keith had been waiting for him to say something else.

"Tomorrow, when we talk, would it be ok if we went out and hung out while we did it? Just you and me?" He asked. "We could try the movie theater again or just one of the coffee shops. Heck, maybe even dinner if you want." He suggested. Silence filled the air as he waited for a reply. Biting his lip, Lance felt a bit doubtful and started to regret asking.

"Are...Are you asking me out on a date?" The tender and cautious voice asked. He sounded almost hopeful, but he hadn't answered yet so Lance held his breath.

"Yes?" He answered hesitantly. The next word he heard let the breath wash away with relief and a soft smile gracing his lips. 

"Then yeah, totally," Keith said. Lance couldn't see him, but he knew that the boy was smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many of you wanted a Lance POV chapter, and I had a lot of fun writing it! Now you all know how Lance feels during all of this. I may do another one from his point of view at the end of the story so there's a cool 'Before and After' thing on how he feels.  
> Also, Colleen's illness will be addressed properly in the next chapter!


	29. Let's Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sadness, then happiness, and then pain.

        The first 'date' had been a bit awkward on Keiths end. He had never been on a date in his entire life so he hadn't the slightest clue on what he was supposed to do. In the end, they had chosen dinner over the other two options (Mainly because Keith loved having the ability to taste things now) so Lance could just drive them there seeing as Keith was still anxious about walking around the vast city. The had picked a small but fancy place near the north end of town that had outdoor seating by a bridge so they could watch boat pass by as they spoke. 

        During the first date, they talked about a lot of things. They talked about living together, things that Keith still needed to buy a phone and things like that, they even talked about taking turns when it came to cooking and driving. They talked about the simple things. Keith had learned a lot through the little things though. Lance used to have a pet turtle when he was in high school apparently, but when Keith asked where it was now the boy just laughed and said that his brother had claimed it when he moved out. Keith offered to get him a new turtle, but they already had massive tortoises at the zoo.

        The second date had taken place about a week later. This time they had gone bowling just a few miles from the zoo. Allura and Shiro had tagged along to make it a double date and teased Lance the whole time even though both boys insisted they were still just very close friends having a night out. They didn't look too convinced and had specifically rented out a lane far on the other end of the building to give them 'privacy' for their 'just friends' date. A lot of air quotes were used by Allura. 

        On this date, they talked about some serious things. More personal things. Lance had talked about his family back in Cuba and the beach that they lived on. He spoke with a certain fondness for his voice that Keith could never hope to have. He felt awful when he didn't have a story to share about a family he never had. So instead he talked about Lauren as if she were a good friend, and that she was the only family that he knew before he even met Violet. He even talked about her a little bit, and things were before she pushed him away. 

        Another week later the third date was a bit unusual as it was spent at the zoo itself. It was hours after the park had been closed and everyone had gone home already except for the two vastly different yet close friends. It was dark in the sky above but multiple yellow tinted fairly lights were strung throughout the vast park, illuminating the concrete walking paths and animal enclosures. The nocturnal animals were prowling about, wrestling with their den mates or just laying around in the cool nighttime air.  

        Keith and Lance walked beside one another, differences showing even with just their outfits and not their personalities. The tall brunette wore long jeans with a white shirt and a green tye dye sweater that had a band name sloppily printed on the back of it to protect him from the chilly air. Keith, on the other hand, wasn't bothered by the cold so he wore a simple black tee shirt with his hands tucked into his jean pockets. His hair was different, however. Instead of the long black locks hanging down on his pale white skin like ink strokes on paper, his hair was in a small tight braid with a bright yellow clip holding the end of it in place.

        This time, the two didn't talk just yet. For now, they just enjoyed the silence and each others company as they walked through the park, taking random twists and turns passed various enclosures and buildings. 

        But Keith wanted to speak up. It was almost painful how much he wanted to open his mouth and spill everything to Lance. What he was, the real reason Violet had rid of him, that he had no idea what he was doing, and that he was sorry. He wanted to apologize from the bottom of his heart for doing something no Widgets should ever be able to do. He had lied so much to one of the few people that cared about him. He had dodged the truth and Lance saw him as something he would never be. He would never be human no matter how hard he wanted to or how hard he tried. 

        And he was scared. At first, he had been scared of people turning him away because of what he was, and so he hid it. But now that he had made a connection with these people, he was deathly terrified. Pidge knew, but the others? Lance, Hunk, Shiro, Coran, and Allura? If they found out now after all of this time, they would be devastated, mad that he had lied and enraged by what he was. He couldn't handle that kind of rejection again, no with this many people at once.

        But whenever he looked at Lance, the fear melted away and suddenly everything was ok, even when it wasn't. There was just something that came off of the tall tan skinned young adult that radiated like an aura and washed away all of the bad things in life. He had that effect on people that just relaxed them, even complete strangers. One look from him or at him and suddenly everything was alright. 

        But Keith couldn't look forever. He knew that one day they would find out what he was, and never allow him to look again just like Violet had. He wanted them to know so he could stop hiding, but he was scared. He felt as if he were a coward. Lance saw him as all of these amazing things but he was just a coward too scared of his own self.

        And so like a coward, he kept his mouth shut as he walked beside the person he wanted to risk it all for. 

        "You ok there hot shot?" Lance asked, digging up the nickname and tilting his head at the shorter male. A nickname he didn't deserve. 

        "Yeah, just lost in thought." He admitted, voice lacking any of the emotion he was gifted with. 'Tell him' his mind said. 'Tell him everything'. If he had a heart, it would have been aching. But for now, all he had was a hot burning pang in his chest that stung compared to the usual warmth he loved and enjoyed. He couldn't feel pain like humans could. He could feel things that were highly unpleasant, but they never hurt. 

        "You sure you're ok? You know you can talk to me." He spoke in a gentle voice, making Keith want to tell him even more than he did before. Lance didn't deserve this, he didn't deserve to lie too like this. Lance was getting to close and too attached to Keith for his own good because when he found out, he would be torn.

        "Yeah, just.......i...." Tell him. "I'm just scared." Close enough.

        "Scared?" Lance questioned. "What are you scared of?" He asked, putting his hands into his sweater pockets to try and help Keith feel more at ease. It didn't help. The widget said nothing and only lowered his gaze to the moonlight cement below him.  "Tell you what. You tell me what scares you, and I'll tell you what scares me, deal?" Removing one of his slender hands form the fabric of his sweater, he extended it to Keith. 

        "Yeah, I suppose." He said, hesitantly taking the offered hand. "It's stupid though..." Keith released the hand and returned his gaze to the ground by his feet, watching with each step as his feet hit the ground with a soft tapping noise. 

        "Fears aren't stupid in my opinion, Unless it's like, a fear of onions or something like that." The boy commented with a small laugh. Keith smiled a bit at the lighthearted joke, but it felt forced.

        Smile dropping, Keith slowed down his pace until he was stopped. A few feet in front of him, Lance stopped as well and he turned to face him. "Keith?" He asked carefully as if approaching a frightened animal. It would make sense seeing as he worked with animals on a daily basis. 

        "I'm just......." He paused to take a deep breath that he didn't need. "I'm scared that I'm going to get pushed away. It feels like history is just repeating itself and that I'll get left behind again. I enjoy spending time with you, I like hanging out with Pidge and the others, I like working here, I'm glad that you found me that night all those months ago, and I'm terrified that I'll lose it all. Before Violet turned me away, things were good, I was happy I guess. And then in the blink of an eye, it was all gone as if it was never there. I don't want to go through that again so I'm scared to get close to any of this and any of you." The words spilled out, and he barely managed to keep his secret out of it. He wanted to tell him so bad.

        "Oh." Was all Lance said and Keith stood there and trembled a bit. But words weren't needed. It wasn't an 'oh' of realization, it was one with a soft tone like a mother speaking to an upset child. That's what Keith felt like at this point. A child. "I didn't realize." He said, taking a single step closer to the boy. Keith took a step back.

        "I guess what I'm trying to say is that it might be better for me to shut people out so they can't push me away first." He blurted out. "I don't want to feel pain or hurt, so I avoid it. I avoid everything because I'm too scared to face it and face myself!" He hadn't realized his voice had grown in volume until he saw Lance flinch.  "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to start yelling...." He said in a quiet voice, wrapping his pale arms around himself. He would have cried, but he had no tears to shed. There was only shame and guilt.

        "You know, I've always had the fear of letting people down." With his voice completely even, Lance took a step forwards. The widget stayed out this time. "I don't think I'm a great person to a lot of people. I'm always scared that I'm joking too much, that I'm being annoying, that I'm not working hard enough. I think about that all the time. Sometimes I don't think I deserve all of this." Both hands out of his pockets, he motioned the entire zoo around them. "I'm scared that I'll let everyone down and I could lose all of this. I'm on the brink of this place being shut down. If I make one slip up, one small mistake, I let everyone here down. I'm scared to disappoint everyone here because for some of them this all they have." Lance paused and let out a deep sigh.

        "Ok, that's a lie. The others all have things outside of this. Pidge is a tech god and can program anything under the sun. Hunk is a mechanic and the best cook I've ever known. Allura had Coran and her father's entire wealth and business to her name, And Shiro has his therapy classes and veteran benefits to fall back on. Me? I'm nothing special." Keith's eyes widened a bit as he looked up at Lance.

        "Without this zoo? I'm nothing. I can't cook, I can't build stuff, I don't have a rich family or a life of luxury. The only thing I can do is sign a ton of paperwork to keep this place open. It's almost pointless. Not a lot of people are interested in zoos and animals. With all of the technology coming out, people have no need for a walk in the park or to see a lion in a cage when they can just use virtual reality, or get a robotic one of their own. There's no need for any of this or me. If I wasn't here, things would go on as if I never made an impact." 

        Shoulders sagging, Lance shrugged. "I keep trying my best though. This will get better eventually, right? It's not like things can just stay bad forever. You just have to wait for the good things in life I suppose. It's what I've been doing and it seems to be working so far." Finally, Lance finished speaking. Keith watched as the boy wiped away a few stray tears.

        "If it helps at all, you don't have to prove anything," Keith stated, voice just a bit shaky from hearing those words come from Lance. All this time and the most wonderful person he knew saw himself as a worthless nobody who didn't matter? He almost couldn't believe it.  Keith saw no flaws in the perfect boy who only saw one massive mistake. "To me you're fantastic. I'm sure the others feel the same way."

        "Hunk probably, but only because we've bee friends since we were two so he could never do anything like that. But Allura scolds me on the daily for little mistakes, Pidge teases me about how smart she is compared to me despite being practically half my age and height, and Shiro treats me like a child." Lance explained, moving to sit on a nearby bench, mindlessly swatting at a mosquito that zipped by him.

        Wordlessly, Keith moved to sit beside him. "Pidge teases everyone because she knows she can. I know that much. As for Shiro and Allura? I'm sure they're just looking out for you. I'm pretty sure Pidge didn't call them the mom and dad friends for no reason." He said with a small laugh. The small joke worked and Lance chuckled beside him. "And me? I look up to you. I'm not great when it comes to interacting with people, so I just try and do what you would do." 

        "Is that so?" Lance questioned, leaning back and crossing his arms. Playing along, Keith mimicked him, leaning back with crossed arms as well.

        "It is." They sat for a solid 2 seconds of just smirking at each other before they broke out into a fit of laughter, startling some of the animals in the nearby enclosures. And they sat there like that for a while, making jokes and laughing at ridiculous poses. 

        It was exactly like that when Shiro had found the two laughing kids. He had been making a late night trip to restock the dog treats in his portion of the zoo when he had heard them cackling like maniacs only to walk over and find them practically falling off the bench with hysteric laughter. The two had begged Shiro to join them in their ridiculous attempts, but he politely declined with the excuse of only having one arm, so he wasn't able to pose in things like the disco. When he tried it just to prove a point, the laughter started all over again.

        But the time had come when it was midnight and Shiro dubbed it bedtime. He even used his 'dad' voice (That only made them laugh harder) to tell them to head home. In the end, they did. Since it was midnight they decided to have some fun and blare the radio in the truck with the windows down all the way home.

        Once back to the large house, they hopped out of the truck and headed inside, exhausted and tired from everything that had happened. With quick and smile filled goodnight's, the went to their separate rooms. Things were far from fixed, but they were ok for now. They opened up to each other and that's what the intention was. Things would get better.

        But before things will get better, they will become far worse.

 

\---Later that night---

 

        Keith wasn't sure what time it was when he was aroused from his sleep mode in the middle of the night. A faint ringing noise from downstairs causes him to stir in the bed where he lay. Listening closer he could hear that it was Lance's phone ringing. Who would be calling him this late? Well, early seeing as the nightstand said it was nearly 3 in the morning. Just in case, Keith unplugged his charger from his nape and stashed it away in the drawer beside his bed. The brief charge was enough to last until tomorrow so he would be fine. 

        He heard the phone go silent and the muffled sounds of Lance speaking through the floor below him. He couldn't make out any of the words, but the muffled tones sounded groggy and laced with tiredness from sleep. He figured it was probably Pidge asking for late night assignment help or something. Heck, maybe even Rover got out again. 

        The muffled voice continued for a few minutes, cutting out occasionally as whoever was on the other end of the call spoke. 

        He was about to go back to sleep when he heard soft footsteps come from the bottom of the stairs. He listened carefully as the gentle sock muffled tapping grew louder, coming up the stairs. What on earth was Lance doing? A sudden thought had him wondering if someone from the Widget company was calling him, and had exposed him. It was unlikely though seeing as Lauren said that Sam, the owner of the company, knew what and where he was. 

        A soft knock was rapped out onto his closed door, causing him to sit up and lightly tug the covers off. "Come in." He said quietly. The door opened to reveal Lance in nothing but a tank top and boxers. Keith looks at the boy with a single raised eyebrow. "Do you need something?" He asked, confused. 

        In complete silence, Lance made his way over to the bedside with his head hanging low. It was then that Keith noticed he was crying. Before Keith could ask what was wrong or even try to do anything, Lance lowered himself and carefully climbed onto the bed beside Keith. It was a bit of an awkward fit since it was only a twin sized mattress. Making himself as comfortable as he could, Lance tucked himself right against Keith who was still sitting up in confusion. "Lance?" He asked quietly. 

        "My mom called me......" He said, voice breaking and sounding distance. He sounded so young with how his voice cracked. "Sh-she called me and told me that.....that...." The Cuban sniffled, a sob wracking his body from head to toe that left him shivering against Keith. 

        "She told you what?" Keith questioned quietly as he slid back down into a laying position. Lance immediately scooted closer and tucked himself into Keith's chest, folding his arms across his arms as he curled into fetal position.

        "My grandma....she passed away a few hours ago...." The boy whimpered out as his voice became higher and cracked. Tears flowed freely now, soaking Keith's shirt as he cried. The silent sobs grew into low whines and cries while he clung to Keith, seeking out any form of comfort that he could find. 

        "Come here," Keith said quietly, wrapping his arms around Lance gently, placing his hands on the boys trembling back. As they lay there he pulled the blanket back up and covered them both to trap what warmth he could. It was warm in the room, but Lance just wouldn't stop shivering. "Shhh, its ok, I've got you..." He whispered, desperately trying to remember how to comfort people based off of what he knew.

        "Sh-she's gone, Keith......" Lance said, sucking in a strained breath. "Abuela-" He said, tone breaking away like shards of glass. 

        Keith had no words. He wasn't good at this, comforting people with words. So he chose something else.

        Gently, he started to hum. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the first domino in the line starts to fall.


	30. Schedule Update

So yeah, there's going to be a new update schedule. Which in NO schedule. Yes, I will still make new chapters! But they will be posted randomly instead of every Thursday. Recently I've been getting sick a lot, I'm getting a job soon, and I will be opening an online shop so I will most likely not have time to stick to a set schedule.

Fear not! This does not mean there will be fewer updates! There might actually be more than usual since having no schedule means I can update whenever the heck I want. Back to back chapters might even be a thing if I'm in the mood.

With that said, the next chapter will come out sometime next week hopefully! 


	31. Sneak Peak

\---Authors note!---

I am so sorry about not having posted a new chapter! I promise I am almost done typing it and it will be posted very soon! Things have been very busy recently in my life so I haven't been able to properly find time or motivation to write all that much. I've been camping, job hunting, prepping for my senior year, moving, and so many more things that eat away at my free time.

But fear not! I bring evidence that it is being done!

Here is a small scene from the upcoming chapter that I think you might enjoy.

\-----------------

 

 

        It was around 5 in the morning when Lance finally stirred from his restless and twitchy slumber, eyes dull and a bit glassy from the tears only hours ago as he blinked owlishly at his surroundings. The sun was just barely starting to come up seeing as it was still early summer, so it was a bit difficult to see. 

        After a moment, Lance seemed to remember the events of last night and where he currently was. With a bright shade of red tinting his cheeks, he saw that he was still clinging to his housemate’s arm. Slowly, Lance looked up to look at Keiths face. The widget faintly wondered if he should have faked being asleep to make things less awkward, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. This person needed comfort and he wasn’t about to feign sleep through it. Even if it was awkward. 

        And so he offered a soft, yet sad smile, showing that he remembered last night and remembered why the two were in the same bed in the first place. 

        “Hey,” Keith said softly.

        “Hey,” Lance replied even softer, just barely above a whisper. His trembling breath was warm against Keith collar and it made the widget shudder under the covers despite him not being cold at all. Thankfully Lance did not notice. 

        “You ok?” Keith asked, slowly removing his arm from over Lance’s shoulder. Deep blue eyes looked to the limb as it was pulled away from him. When had that gotten there? Gaze wandering down to his own tan skinned arms, Lance realized he was still holding onto Keith just below his shirt. For a moment the human boy let his eyes linger a little too long, noticing the stark difference in their skin tines. He quickly let go and tucked his own arms into his chest, curling up on himself a bit as he remembered the events of last night yet again. 

        Keith watched Lance swallow thickly before opening his mouth. After no words came out, Lance simply frowned and shook his head. Tears started forming again and Keith was quick to act. Gently, he took both his arms and wrapped them around Lance, squeezing the boy in a form of comfort. Lance melted into his grip instantly, his own lanky arms moving to clutch the back of Keith’s tee shirt desperately as if the boy would just disappear into thin air if he didn’t hold on tight enough. 

        But Keith wasn’t going anywhere. Not now, not ever.


	32. Make Me Feel Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY, I FOUND TIME TO TYPE THIS  
> Keith and Lance have some bonding time for my poor boi to recover from the news of the last chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title based on this song ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5gQtyobFLg

        After Lance had fallen asleep, Keith had remained wide awake, watching the boy sleep restlessly beside him in the dim moonlit room. Moonlight filtered in through the curtained window, casting deep shadows across the room and both the two males faces. Every detail and curve was defined by cast shadows, lining his jaw and eyebrows and following the curve of his nose. 

        The widget desperately wanted to take a picture, but this tender moment was caused by a pain he would never understand. And so he let it be.

        Occasionally Lance would twitch or mumble something, but the words were never clear enough for Keith to understand. At some point in the night, Lance had even moved enough to completely latch onto Keith's arm, holding onto it like a lifeline. It had startled Keith a bit, but after a few quick minutes of research, it was common for people to become clingy to the nearest person after the loss of a loved one. Even while asleep. He did the only thing he could think of and draped his free arm over the boy's shoulder, hiding the Cubans face with his torso. It seemed to be the right choice of action as Lance visibly relaxed, tense limbs sinking into submission. For the night, Keith did not dare move from that spot. He didn't know how humans worked with emotions like these, so the robot let Lance do what he wished. 

        It was around 5 in the morning when Lance finally stirred from his restless and twitchy slumber, eyes dull and a bit glassy from the tears only hours ago as he blinked owlishly at his surroundings. The sun was just barely starting to come up seeing as it was still early summer, so it was a bit difficult to see. 

        After a moment, Lance seemed to remember the events of last night and where he currently was. With a bright shade of red tinting his cheeks, he saw that he was still clinging to his housemate's arm. Slowly, Lance looked up to look at Keith's face. The widget faintly wondered if he should have faked being asleep to make things less awkward, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. This person needed comfort and he wasn't about to feign sleep through it. Even if it was awkward.  

        And so he offered a soft, yet sad smile, showing that he remembered last night and remembered why the two were in the same bed in the first place. 

        "Hey," Keith said softly.

        "Hey," Lance replied even softer, just barely above a whisper. His trembling breath was warm against Keith collar and it made the widget shudder under the covers despite him not being cold at all. Thankfully Lance did not notice. 

        "You ok?" Keith asked, slowly removing his arm from over Lance's shoulder. Deep blue eyes looked to the limb as it was pulled away from him. When had that gotten there? Gaze wandering down to his own tan skinned arms, Lance realized he was still holding onto Keith just below his shirt. For a moment the human boy let his eyes linger a little too long, noticing the stark difference in their skin tines. He quickly let go and tucked his own arms into his chest, curling up on himself a bit as he remembered the events of last night yet again. 

        Keith watched Lance swallow thickly before opening his mouth. After no words came out, Lance simply frowned and shook his head. Tears started forming again and Keith was quick to act. Gently, he took both his arms and wrapped them around Lance, squeezing the boy in a form of comfort. Lance melted into his grip instantly, his own lanky arms moving to clutch the back of Keith's tee shirt desperately as if the boy would just disappear into thin air if he didn't hold on tight enough. 

        But Keith wasn’t going anywhere. Not now, not ever.

        The two shuffled around a bit until Keith was in a sitting position with Lance practically in his lap. It was a bit of an awkward fit seeing as Lance was taller than him, but he had curled up into a small enough ball to have his head tucked underneath the widgets pale chin. Quite sobs came from Lance as he cried, much quieter this time than the last. 

        The whole time, Keith dare not say a word, as he was scared to make it worse. He didn't know how to comfort people, he wasn't human, he didn't know how to fix broken feelings.  But at this moment, Keith was all Lance had.

        So what was he supposed to do?

        "Hey, supernova, how about we call in for work today, hm? We can have one of those movie marathons you keep wanting me to do. I'll even make breakfast. How does that sound?" Keith suggested. He pulled away from Lance enough to look down at his face. When the widget had used the nickname, Lance had relaxed a bit, cries quieting down to sniffles and occasional whining noises. Reaching up, he hastily wiped away his tears before nodding, face red and puffy from crying. "I'll use the house phone and let the other know once we get downstairs," Keith said.

        Very slowly, as if Lance were made of glass, Keith moved from the bed, scooting Lance with him before the to of them stood to their feet, the cold wooden floor chilling their toes. Before either could start walking, Keith grabbed the light blue blanket from the bed and draped it over Lance's shoulders. It hung loosely over the boy's frame as he clutched the corners of it to his chest as a grounding comfort. 

        "I'm sorry......." 

        It had been so soft and so silent that Keith nearly missed the words that came from Lance's mouth. "What?" He asked, turning to face the human boy. "What are you apologizing for? You didn't do anything wrong."

        "I shouldn't have come in here last night like I did." Blue eyes finally looked up to meet Keith violet irises. "It's not anything you did, but I should have just handled it myself. I didn't mean to inconvenience you or anything and I need to stop being so clingy." The words came out a bit harshly, but the anger in the words seemed to be directed at himself, not Keith.

        "What? No no no, don't apologize for that. You were hurting and needed help. If anything I should be apologizing because we both know I'm terrible with people and comforting them. I'm like, the worst person when it comes to this stuff." Keith admitted. It was true in his eyes. Things probably would have gone a lot smoother and better if Hunk was here comforting Lance instead of him. 

        "......A-are you sure? If you want to you can go to work without me. I know you like the zoo and I should be fine here." Lance insisted. Keith only smiled softly and shook his head. When he smiled, Keith couldn't help but notice the small tinge of red from across the boy's cheeks.

        "I'd rather be here making sure you're ok. It's the least I can do after all of the things you've done for me." The words seemed to hit home and Lance's posture stiffened for a moment in surprise. "Besides, we promised each other that we would talk. And that's what we'll do. I might not be good with people but if I know one thing it's that it's good to talk about stuff."

        A smile ghosted over Lance's lips as he nodded a bit, the movement nearly not seen in the dim morning light. By now the sun had just started to peek over the horizon, casting a dull golden glow across the clouded sky outside. 

        Still clutching the blanket, Lance turned and started to make his way out of the room. Keith went to follow but stopped for a quick moment to turn around to grab his pillow. If he couldn't emotionally comfort Lance, he would try his best physically. With that thought in mind, he quickly hurried after one in need of comfort, following him down the stairs. The walk was slow, as Lance wasn't in the best frame of mind right now and he looked about ready to fall down the stairs without a moments notice. The poor boy didn't even seem to be paying attention to where he was putting his bare feet.

        Once the duo had survived the trek down the stairs, Keith carefully led Lance over to the living room, nudging him down until he was sitting near one of the armrests. Keith offered the pillow and Lance gratefully took it, hugging it to his chest as a grounding item. His fingers anxiously tugged at the pillowcase as he sat there, puffy eyes trained somewhere downwards near the floor with an unfocused gaze.

        Keith handed the tv remote to the trembling lump on the couch, giving his hands something to do. "Go ahead and pick a movie. It doesn't really matter which one so go ahead and find something you like." He stated. Lances hand was cold against his when their fingers briefly brushed against one another during the passing of the remote and it worried Keith. When he was done making breakfast he would have to grab another blanket for him. Body temperature wasn't an issue for Keith or any Widgets, but Lance felt way colder than any human should be.

        As he turned to leave and head to the kitchen, a gentle hand gripped the soft fabric of Keith's shirt. The fingers holding the shirt were in such a gentle grasp that Keith could easily pull away if he wanted too, but judging by what happened last night and how Lance was acting now it meant that he just didn't want people to leave. 

        "I'll be right back, I promise, but you need to eat something alright?" The widget said in the softest voice possible as if Lance were a frightened animal, ready to bolt or break at a moments notice. 

        Turning to look, Keith was met with the widest brightest blue eyes he had seen. Lance's eyes were nothing new, but the way he looked up at the black haired man with a gaze of fear and longing made something tighten in Keith's chest almost painfully. Maybe leaving him alone even for a few minutes wasn't a good idea.

        "Want to help me cook? Maybe I can show you how to not burn it." He said with a fond smile. Lance perked up at the small tease, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips with a small nod. He still had yet to say anything though and that was what worried Keith the most. The person who usually spoke the most out of everyone he knew was now dead silent as if his voice never existed in the first place. When they heard first met, talking was all Lance had ever done. He talked about everything and anything.

        Offering an extended hand to the seemingly broken human, Keith sent a quick message to Pidge's phone letting her know that neither him or Lance would be showing up to work today. Her reply was quick, saying she would let the others know, but also wanted the reason they were calling in. He would call her later to explain.

        Lance reached out from his blanket burrito and took the Widgets offered hand into his own gentle grip. Letting Keith guide him, Lance stood up to his feet with only the lightest tug from the hand he was holding. Now standing up, the boy let himself be led like a dog on a leash as Keith walked the both of them out of the living room and into the kitchen. 

        Once they were in there, The widget guided his sad friend to the dining room table and sat him down there.

        "I'll make you some coffee while I get stuff to make breakfast out, ok?" Keith asked, his hand resting gently on Lance's shoulder. So far Lance was responding ok only when he was in physical contact with someone. The blanket seemed to help a bit as well seeing as it was a weight that was settled on the boy at all times.

        "You don't have too..." Lance said quietly. "You really don't have to be doing any of this. You could be at work right now, or even hanging out with Pidge." He commented, eyes falling to his lap with a forlorn gaze held in his deep blue eyes. 

        "I know, you've said that almost three times now that I don't have too. But I want too. I'd rather be here with you then go to work." And that was a solid truth. He enjoyed working with the animals and absolutely loved hanging out with Pidge (Especially since she started giving his cool upgrades), but he would always choose Lance first. And for once, it wasn't because of a priority list with names on it. No code would ever say how much he cared about this human boy that had offered him a place in his family and home.

        Keith offered a soft smile and turned to walk over to the coffee pot. Lance's soft words made him stop halfway across the floor, however. "With how close you and Pigeon have been getting I'm surprised you're choosing to stay here," The words came to Keith as a surprise. How close they had become?

        "What do you mean by that?" He asked, turning to face the Cuban blanket burrito with a single raised eyebrow. 

        "You and she have been hanging out a lot after work so I figured that you would want to be with her more than me. She doesn't bond with people a lot in general. She doesn't have any close friends outside of me, Shiro, Hunk, Allura, and Coran. The only thing she's ever interested in is technology." Lance pulled the blanket over his shoulders a little tighter, taking a deep breath with his eyes closed. "Then suddenly you show up and two days later you're her best friend? A little odd in my opinion, but that lead me to believe that you two were really close and that you'd want to hang out with her and not me."

        Keith frowned a bit. He hadn't realized that he and Pidge were hanging out that often. He did find it funny that Pidge didn't make a lot of humans friends so Keiths only good excuse was that he was the exact technology she was interested in. 

        "If it reassures you at all, Pidge and I mostly hang out because I help her with her projects." Ironically he WAS one of her projects now. "Sure we're friends, but every time I'm over at her place it's just talking about Widgets, computer stuff, and the projects she has," Keith explained. "It's really nothing more than that. And like I said before, I would rather be here with you then working on projects anyways. Especially right now. Not only do I want to be here, but I know for a fact that you NEED someone to be here with you. I wouldn't leave you alone like that." He said, a fond smile making its way onto the robot's face. The warm feeling in his chest returned as he spoke.

        "So, you think I need a babysitter?" Lance asked, slumping a bit.

        "No, that's not at all what I think. I think you need a friend. Someone to talk with and just be with while you deal with stuff. I might not be the best option, but I'm here and I will try my best to be that friend that you need." He paused and laughed a bit. "But we both know Hunk is definitely the best option. Being the best hugger out of all us and that."

        Lance let out a small lighthearted chuckle, sitting up in his chair a little bit. "Yeah, I guess your right." Looking up, Lance locked his gaze with Keiths, matching the fond beaming smile that Keith held. 

        For a moment, nothing else mattered. No one was watching and there was no sound. The only thing that existed in that place in time as each other and the bond that was defined as they gazed into each other's eyes. Any other time, one of them would have snapped out of it, broken the tender scene and looked away. But neither of them could move. It was a comfortable silence in which no outside force could ruin. They were just two people in the universe that have found comfort in one another.

        For that moment, Keith felt human. 

        Suddenly, he felt the warmth in his chest pulse, the pressure of whatever it was spreading through his body all the way down to his fingertips and toes, making them tingle and feel numb. It was such a foreign feeling to him that he nearly recoiled and clutched at his chest. He instead opted to rub the area where the pulse had started. It was gone now, but the tingling was still there. What the hell had that been? Maybe Pidge would know. 

       But that wasn't important right now. Making sure that Lance felt better was his top priority. "Well, the offer still stands about the coffee." He said in order to change the subject and distract himself. "Unless you wanted tea or cocoa instead." 

        "Coffee sounds awesome. Sleep did not come not easily last night so I am bone tired. Thank god for whoever discovered coffee." The boy said, still smiling and clearly in a much better mood than before. He removed the blanket from his shoulders and draped in on the back of the chair next to him. "I'm still surprised you don't like coffee. You're literally the only person I know that doesn't like it. 

        "It's not that I don't like it, I just prefer hot cocoa. It just tastes better." Thanks to Pidge now he could actually taste stuff. Maybe his next upgrade could be feeling things like texture and temperature. He always knew how warm and cold things were due to built-in thermometers in his body, but he didn't know what they felt like. 

        Suddenly, an idea came to mind as he turned on the coffee pot. Could Pidge make him feel pain? Emotional and physical? He had emotions already as they had discovered, but they always just felt weird, not good or bad. It was the same for physical feelings. He could tell the difference between hot and cold, but nothing ever burned. If he was pushed or hit with something, he could feel the force from it but there was never pain. And he was curious as to what pain felt like to people. 

        "That is a very valid point. Hot cocoa is always good." Lance pointed out, resting his elbows on the table in front of him as he watched Keith pour the coffee grounds into the top of the machine. "Unless you're lactose intolerant. Then hot cocoa isn't a very good idea." He pointed out with a small cringe.

        "There's always that cocoa that's made with water." Keith pointed out as he placed the top back on the coffee machine before turning it on. It made a soft humming noise as the water started heating up.

        "True, true, but that stuff is kinda gross in my opinion. Whoever thought putting chocolate in hot water was a good idea?" Lance rolled his eyes as he spoke, making random motions with his hands as if it would express how ridiculous the topic was.

        Leaning against the counter and crossing his arms, Keith let out a small puff of breath with a soft smile. "I guess we'll never know. For now, though, you just stick with coffee, and I'll stick with hot cocoa. The milk kind." Both boys chuckled at the silly statement. They were now completely relaxed and back to a neutral feeling range. Things were calm. 

        "So mister 'almost as good as Hunk when it comes to cooking', what's for breakfast today?" Lance questioned, resting his chin in the palms of his hands. 

        "I don't really know. I would say pancakes but that's all I ever make. That and omelets. Sooooo-"

        Keith was cut off as Lance sat up suddenly and pointed a single finger in his direction. "Grilled cheese."

        The widgets blinked a few times, confusion showing in his violet eyes that were wide with surprise at the boy's sudden outburst and cravings for grilled cheese. "I thought that was a lunch food." He stated, raising an eyebrow in question.

        "Technically yes, but we're adults. We can eat whatever we want, whenever we want. Besides I'm the one who buys the groceries so I get a say in what we make out of them. And what I say we make, is grilled cheese." Now standing, Lance made his way over to the counter where Keith stood by the coffee pot. "I'll finish making the coffee, and you grab the stuff?" He asked.

        "I uh," Keith paused. He didn't know how to make grilled cheese. Now, he could just look it up in his head and do it perfectly like he did with other foods, but that was no fun. Maybe it was time to change things up? "I don't exactly know how to make grilled cheese." He said, voice feigning embarrassment. 

        "So you mean to tell me, that you can make killer omelets, but can't make something as simple as grilled cheese?" Lance asked incredulously, almost in disbelief. Before the robot boy could even speak, a chuckle from Lance made him keep his mouth shut. "Well, I guess I'm better than you at one thing." He said with a smirk. Keith rolled his eyes but smile regardless.

        "So, you wanna teach me?" He asked, arms still crossed.

        "Want to teach you? Dude, I HAVE to teach you. Even Shiro can make grilled cheese and he only has one hand!" Lance exclaimed, sticking his own hand in front of Keith, wiggling his fingers in the boys face making him laugh a bit.

        "That was a terrible Lance-" He stated, bring a hand up to his face and facepalming with an exaggerated groan. 

        "Ah! But you laughed! That means it was good!" The Cuban argued with a defiant smirk, crossing his own arms and puffing out his chest with pride. "Just another thing I can do that you cant~" He teased.

        "And what's that?" Keith questioned. As he asked, Lance walked over to the fridge to get the stuff for the grilled cheese.

        "Making good jokes, obviously." He replied, tossing a loaf of bread onto the counter by the stove. It nearly fell off and down to the floor and was now just teetering on the edge. Lance made a face of pure disappointment at the bread while Keith nudged it all the way onto the smooth countertop. 

        "I can make good jokes too. Trust me. You said it yourself, I've been hanging out with Pidge a lot and man, she can make jokes that make it painful to laugh. Or so I've been told anyways." He stated. He remembered Pidge cracking a joke one time when Coran was around he the mustache handy-man had absolutely lost it with hysteric laughter to where he had to sit down for a few minutes. 

        "Well, prove it then," Lance said as he pulled a packet of cheese and a tub of butter from the fridge. Setting the stuff down he gently kicked the door shut behind him

        "Alright. Knock knock." Keith stated.

        "Starting off with knock knock jokes is just sad, buddy," Lance said with a cringe. "But I'll play along. Who's there?" He asked.

        "Ya."

        "Ya who?"

        Keith didn't answer, but he started laughing. Lance looked confused for a small moment, but his eyes widened in sudden realization.

        "You did not just get me to say Yahoo! That's not cool dude!" He hollered, trying to sound mad, but he was laughing as well. Soon the two of them were leaning on the counter for support, laughing at the crude knock-knock joke. It was so dumb, yet at the same time, it felt like the best joke ever made in the history of mankind. So small and pathetic, yet so funny.

        Because the best things are always the little things in life.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>         Holy CRAP that took a long time to get done! Sorry for the long unannounced hiatus guys! Things got super busy and then motivation and free time were hard to come by. But finally! The chapter I've wanted to write is finished!
> 
>         I'm actually kind of happy that it took so long to publish this because it's a happy break from what all happened in season 7. Everything just felt so weird this season. Season 6 is still my personal favorite of the bunch, to be honest.
> 
>         Anyways, be sure to comment what you think of the chapter as usual and feel free to ask questions!


	33. AUTHORS NOTE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all are gonna be happy about this.

You guys are all in luck! The story will go back to regular updates very soon!   
Starting December 21st I will be posting a new chapter every other week! I do apologize for such a long and unexpected hiatus. The last few months have been.....difficult for me to say the least. School, family, health, it's all been out of whack.  
But to the person who said that a new chapter would be an amazing Christmas gift, Kudo's to you!   
Whether I have the motivation or not, I am putting my foot down and getting this story done. I'm no longer going to procrastinate.   
I realized the only way to get things done is to just push through and do it, no matter how hard it gets. Get things done no matter what tries to stop you.  
Feel like canceling plans because something bad happened or you're in a down mood? Go out, do it anyways. You never know, you might feel better afterward.  
I'm going to push from now on, no more waits, no more hiatus, this will get done.  
I love you all and I can't wait to show you what comes next!


	34. Hunk Knows Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all ready for normal updates to save us all from the show's ending?

        For the rest of that morning, the two young adults spent the majority of their time in the kitchen and the living room. After they made their grilled cheese sandwiches (Lance ended up burning his on one side) they had made their way to the couch and plopped down beside each other and started scrolling through the channels on TV. It took a while, but eventually, they found a show about space that seemed interesting.

         "Y'know, I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger," Lance stated with a mouthful of his half burnt sandwich. "Just the idea of being able to get close to the stars was pretty cool. I used to have a ton of glow in the dark stickers in my room." He commented, casting a glance towards Keith. "My mom ended up grounding me from using them because I kept taking them off of my ceiling and sticking them onto people instead."

        The Widget let out a small chuckle. "That does seem like something you would do, even now." He pictured Lance as a small child, running around in a room with little plastic stars and trying to put them on other people.

        "Well, when I was younger I was given stars as gifts, so I stuck them to people that I liked. My mom got the most of them and while she did find it sweet, it got annoying when she kept finding them in her laundry."  Putting his food down on a plate resting on the table, Lance pulled out his phone and unlocked it. After a moment of scrolling through photo albums, he pulled up a picture and showed it to Keith. "That's her."

        It was an old photo, clearly taken by someone else and then sent to Lance, but it was easy to tell that this woman was definitely the Cubans mother. Nearly all of her features matched the boy sitting next to him. She wore a plain outfit, smiling with 3 kids by her side. The apron she wore was covered in dozens of little white star stickers, just like Lane has said.

        "Is that you?" Keith questioned as he pointed to the smallest kid with a beaming smile, hands on his hips.

        "Yup! I was just a little ray of sunshine when I was younger." He said, pulling his phone away and returning it to his pocket. 

        "You still are." Keith absentmindedly commented, turning to face the television screen once more. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance freeze for a moment and look at Keith. A few seconds later he smiled softly and looked to the TV as well. Unfortunately, a commercial was on.

        "Aw come on! It was just getting to the good part!" Lance whined, tossing his hands up with mock anger. "Not fair. I pay a cable bill every month for hours of commercials." He sighed and sank back into the couch. "I swear one of these days even Widgets are gonna have ads. Like, you'll be talking to one and suddenly they just start talking about cologne or something like that." He stated.

        "That would be kind of weird." He commented. Keith wondered if that actually would happen or not. Even if it did he and Pidge could probably just block the ads. That was unlikely to ever happen though.

        A few more commercials played before their show came back on, picking up where it left off a few minutes before the show had been interrupted. "Finally-" Lance muttered before settling back into his seat, shoulder bumping against Keiths. The black haired boy cast a small glance at him before laughing softly. 

        "Impatient much?" He asked.

        "Nah, just mad because I have pay to see people showing off stuff I never use. Seriously, there are more ads than showtime." lance complained, voice muffled by a small yawn emitting from him. the boy took a lazy bite from his sandwich and chewed on the mouthful slowly.

        Keith would have asked if Lance was tired, but he already knew that and asking would only make the boy argue and claim otherwise. So he stayed quiet and waited. 

        And soon enough, eyes fell heavily closed and soft snoring began as Lance drifted off into a nap. Keith didn't even need to look to know. He could feel when Lance's heartbeat slowed to a comfortable, steady level and he could feel when the boy had lumped against him. 

        Every breath, every tired twitch, every heartbeat, Keith could feel it even though it was only their shoulders touching each other. 

        Keith had none of those for himself. He didn't need to breathe, he didn't have a heartbeat, and he was still. He never twitched or jerked his body unless startled. He couldn't even feel pain. 

        But, at least he could watch Lance do all of those things for him. Looking at Lance was like looking at the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. And to be truthful, he was. Lance was amazing in every way. Looks, personality, heart, everything was perfection. Nothing was wrong with him.

        Suddenly, a little 'ping' went off in his head, letting him now he had a new message. It was from Pidge. 

        Opening the message, his programming read it in the girl's voice, as if she were actually talking to him. Luckily only he could hear it, so it didn't disturb Lance. 

        "Hey, Hunk is freaking out and keeps asking me to message you about Lance. I told him you'd call later but he got impatient and he's on his way over there now." The message read, mimicking Pidge's voice perfectly as his past recordings of conversations with her molded to the words.  

        "How long till he gets here?" He replied, mouth not moving once as the message sent to Pidge's phone. 

        "About 5 minutes." She replied almost instantly. A few seconds later "Want me to come too so I can help?" She asked. Keith sent her a quick 'no thanks' before thinking of what to tell Hunk.

        The truth would probably be the best. Hunk and Lance were close so if he told Hunk about Lance's grandma then it wouldn't be too much of a problem. The big guy was just a very concerned friend and wanted to know how to help his friend in need. 

        True to Pidge's word, about 5 minutes later, Keith could see Hunk through the window as he pulled up in a minivan. He watched as the dark-skinned boy got out of the van and speed walked up to the porch. Before he could knock, Keith waved to get his attention through the glass and just motioned for him to come in. Thankfully Hunk had seen this and opened the door without making any noise.

        "Where is- Oh. He's right there." Hunk asked after searching for a moment to find his friend. "How's he doing?" He asked, keeping his voice quiet as he closed the door behind him and kicked his shoes off. "Pidge said you guys weren't coming into work today because something came up for Lance. Me being me, I got worried."

        "Yeah, that's understandable," Keith replied, looking at the young man asleep on his shoulder beside him.  "He had a rough night." He started to explain. "His mom called him in the middle of the night with some bad news about his grandma."

        A small gasp escaped Hunk as he sat down in the chair next to the couch. "No, she didn't........did she?" He asked, a sad look with wide eyes of disbelief went over Hunks face.

        "Yeah, she did sadly."  

        Hunk looked towards Lance, face dropping into one of concern and worry. "What happened after his mom called?" His eyes drifted up to Keith with a look of what seemed to be curiosity. The widget assumed it's because of the fact that Keith had not known Lance long and didn't know how to deal with stuff like this in regards to Lance. Hunk had experience but Keith was new to this. New to Lance.

        "Well, I woke up when he did when his phone rang. I couldn't hear the whole conversation, but after the talking stopped, he came upstairs completely quiet, like he just shut down and stopped functioning. Then he just climbed into the bed with me, said what happened, and started crying. I did my best to calm him down until he fell asleep. After he woke up I did my best to cheer him up and here we are now." He gestured to Lance who was still napping, blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place.

        "That makes sense. We shared a dorm room together when we had biology classes in college and sometimes when he got homesick or had a bad nightmare he would just hop into bed with me. He's a touchy person so he relief on others for comfort." Hunk explained. "I don't usually tell this to people, but I can tell that Lance trusts you." The words came out as if a bit forced as if he was hesitant to say something.

        And yet he continued. "He's terrified of being alone. He might have told you that he doesn't want to let people down, and while that's true, he's scared of people leaving him. That's why he tries so hard to be good at things. He's worried that if he disappoints them, he'll leave."

        Keith raised his eyebrows in shock, but they sank back down in confusion. "What does that have to do with last night." Hunk sighed and folded his hands together. 

        "He trusts you. A lot. He hates when people see him being vulnerable so him coming to you last night was very unexpected. Especially since he hasn't known you as long as the rest of us." He explained. The whole time, Keith was coming up with a list of explanations for Lance's behavior. Keith wasn't special, Lance would have done the same if it had been Pidge or Shiro over, not him.

        "It's probably because no one else was here." Keith reasoned. 

        "No man, he's told me that multiple times he was over at other friends houses when he has a breakdown and he just hides and waits till morning and then tells me later. He only ever comes to me or his family. You're the first outside of me and his family that he's gone too."

        At that moment, the realization hit Keith like a truck at full speed. Lance trusted him more than everyone but Hunk and family members. And yet Keith held the biggest secret from him, lying every day. Lance didn't even know what Keith was but trusted him with his deepest secrets and fears. Trust like that was hard to come by, and Lance had opened up and given it all to him. A stranger he found on the street and invited into his home for reasons forever unknown.

        "Oh" Was all he had to say. No words could be formed to explain the millions of thoughts running through his head like a freight train on ice. 

        For a moment, they sat in silent thought. Hunk trying to figure out why Lance trusted Keith so much, and Keith trying to figure out the same thing. Lance shouldn't have any reason to trust him. He knew nothing about him. But there they were, and Lance was an open book to him while Keith was a tightly shut and locked journal. 

        Before either of them could speak again, Hunks phone buzzed, making both of them jump a bit. Lance shifted on Keith's shoulder but did not wake from his nap. Keith let out a breath he didn't need and didn't know he had been holding. He let himself sink into the couch a bit while Hunk checked his phone.

        "Oh, it's for you. Shiro just texted me asking for you. He wants to know if you can come over to the zoo since it's just him, Pidge, Coran and Allura over there right now." Hunk leaned forward to show him the message. "That, and he needs to talk to you." 

        He looked down at Lance, about to deny and tell Hunk that Shiro could wait, but Hunk beat him to speak. "I'll watch him, but whatever Shiro wants is probably important. I'm not saying that I can take care of him better than you, but since I'm here now you might as well go ahead." 

        "A-are you sure?" He asked. "I don't want him to wake up and freak out of I'm not here, and he doesn't know you're here yet." He tried explaining. In truth, he just didn't want to leave Lance's side, whether he was awake or not. 

        "Yeah. I'll explain it to him when he wakes up. And even though it might upset him a little bit he should call his mom and talk to her since it's not midnight this time. It might be better if I'm here for that. No offense." Hunk said.

        "None taken, and you do have a point. But I don't think I can get up without waking him." Keith replied, waving his hand to gesture at Lance leaning on his shoulder. 

        "When he naps, he sleeps like a rock. Just move slow and lay him down and it should be fine." 

        Following Hunks instruction, Keith very slowly scooted over and made sure to hold Lance as he went, gently laying him down on the warm spot he left from sitting there. Once the boy was down (and still asleep) Keith tugged the blanket up to cover his torso. His hand lingered a bit too long on Lance's shoulder, but thankfully Hunk did not notice for he was texting Shiro back. 

        "Can I borrow your van?" Keith asked. He didn't dare touch Lance's truck without permission first so that was out of the list of options. As for knowing how to drive, all Widgets came pre-programmed with basic driving skills and a machine level license in case of emergencies. This was one of those times, Keith supposed.

        "Sure. I'll probably still be here when you get back. No way am I going to leave Lance on his own. He needs someone to be with him for a while till he gets over this bump. it'll take a while, but he'll bounce back. It's just a Lance thing." Both smiled at the statement and Keith hoped that Hunk was right.  

        "Alright. Take care of him. I'll be back as soon as I can and then the three of us can binge watch movies or something."  The widget walked over to the door and slid his shoes on as he spoke. Hunk chuckled a bit at the movie comment. "See you later."

        "See ya."

\--- Sometime later---

         Heavy eyes blinked open as he was pulled from comfortable, blissful sleep. He already wanted to go back to bed. For a moment, he could not remember where he was, or what happened the last time he was awake. 

        Taking a deep gush of air into his lungs, Lance sat up and reach with one hand to rub the tiredness from his eyes.

        "Hey, buddy. You sleep well?" A familiar, warm voice asked.

        "Hunk?" He asked, starting to remember what had happened. He opened his eyes halfway and looked around what he now realized was the living room.  "Where's Keith?" He asked, noticing that his living pillow had vanished. Keith looked bony but was actually pretty comfy to lean on. 

        "Shiro needed him for something at work. He left about an hour ago, and very reluctantly might I add." Hunk stated. He had a book in his lap about dogs that he had nabbed from a nearby bookshelf that Lance never really used. "How you feeling?" He asked.

        "Fine, I think. I'm going to assume Keith told you what happened?" Lance asked, sitting up all the way and raising an eyebrow. He wasn't going to be mad if he had told him. He trusted Hunk, and Keith apparently did as well. That was good.

        "He did. I actually came over on my own when Pidge said you guys had called in without saying why. He didn't know I was coming until a few minutes before I got here."  He said, closing the book and setting it on the table. Lance absentmindedly took note of the unfinished sandwich on Keith plate. He hadn't even touched it. Brushing it off and reminding himself to ask Keith about it later, Lance looked over at Hunk.

        "Probably terrified him, walking up like big ol' mama bear to check on me." He said with a laugh. You might look cuddly but the second something happens with any of us you enter extreme mom mode." Hunk agreed with a light laugh of his own. 

        "Yeah. He was the same though. Didn't want to leave your side at all when I got here." Hunk said. "Also, about that, I need to ask you something." A more serious tone seeped into his voice, and Lance's smile fell a bit.

        "What's up?" He asked, trying to keep the mood light. He didn't want a repeat of last night. Not this soon.

        "You and Keith, what's with you guys? Not in like, a bad way or anything. But you two are locked at the hip. And when I say he told me everything, I mean everything. Including what happened after your mom called." He explained. "You don't normally go to people that openly. So I guess what I'm asking is, why him? There's nothing wrong with him, but it took you years to warm up to me enough to come to me at those times."

        He turned so he was facing any direction than Hunks eyes and he rubbed at his shoulder subconsciously. "I.......I don't really have an answer. After my mom called, all I could think of was how much I was hurting, and that for some reason, he could help get rid of that pain. And I don't know why. I was running just purely based on emotion and everything was screaming to find him." The words came out without him needing to think about it. It was the truth so he didn't try to change the words as they flowed.

        "I trust him with everything, despite knowing nothing about him. And I have no idea why." 

        Hunk looked at him with wide, yet understanding eyes as if he had just figured something out. "Do you...... like him?"

        "Of course. I like all of you guys. You guys are like family to me. Keith included." He said, oblivious to what Hunk had meant.

        "No, I mean like like him. As in the major L word." He said, folding his hands together and leaning forward a bit, a soft smile on his face as he wiggled his eyebrows jokingly. And it worked.

        "What?! Nonono. Not like that dude." Jumping up from his seat, Lance waved his hands dismissively. The bright red on his face told his best friend otherwise, giving Hunk all the answers he needed. But this was no normal crush.

        "Uh huh, sure." Hunk replied, sending Lance into a bout of [pacing, stammering, and stuttering.  "But in all seriousness, do you actually like like him?" 

        Lance froze, putting his hands behind his head and looking at the ceiling. "Crap." He said quietly.

        "What?" Hunk asked, leaning back into the chair. 

        "I think you're right. Hunk you are so good at digging for information sometimes that you find things out before others do." Lance sighed. "I think I like him. In a 'more than a friend or bro' way. Craaaaaaaap."

        "Crap? What's so wrong about that? You like someone, that's normal."

        "Dude, I climbed into bed with him last night. Normal crushes don't do stuff like that. besides, we've already been on a few so-called 'dates'. They were more like just hanging out but I think that's what dates are. But still, I doubt he'd feel the same. We haven't known each other that ling and he's still getting over a breakup." Lance stated, face still red.

        "Well, considering the fact that he didn't at all seem weirded out by the bed thing, or you falling asleep on him on the couch, or the fact that you live together, or that you two are almost always next to each other-" Hunk kept going on with the list, only causing Lance to become more and more flustered with each word.

        "Ok, ok, I get it! I have a chance with him! Chill out before you make me go crazy." 

        "Crazy about him?" 

        "Oh my god Hunk why-"

        "You loooooove him."

        "Hunk what the heck!"

        "I can already hear the wedding bells."

        "Please stop-"

        The two continued, talking back and forth as Hunk playfully teased his best friend. At some point, Lance tackled Hunk in an attempt to get him to stop, but the boy continued despite the fact that Lance was literally sitting on him now. This resulted in an unplanned playfight between the two sibling-like buddies that went on for a while. 

        Soon they got wore out and plopped down onto the couch with heavy breathing and sore arms. "Man, once you start talking you just can't be stopped-" Lance stated with a breathy laugh as he leaned back on the couch. 

        "Nah, that sounds more like you." Hunk replied, patting the top of the Cubans head gently with a look that said 'im right and you know it' in all capital letters. 

        "Oh hush. We all know that Pidge is the talker. The little gremlin can talk for hours once you get her started on something she likes. Technology, food, her section of the zoo, you name it. Hours of conversations planned in advance." 

        Hunk chuffed out a laugh and rolled his eyes. Lance knew he won the conversation and wore a proud smile on his beaming face. 

         For the third time that day, the room fell into silence, a random show playing in the background as they sat and thought about things. Lance thought about Hunks conversation, about the untouched sandwich, about Keith, about Blue, and anything else that came to mind. One after another, random thoughts filtered through his mind. 

        "You should call her." Hunk said, breaking the silence.

        "Who?" Lance asked, looking at him. 

        "Your mom. From what I heard you guys didn't get much out last night when she called you. You should call and talk about things with her." Hunk faced him with watchful eyes as if judging his reaction carefully for anything negative.

        "Yeah..... I guess I should. I don't want to talk about it, but I know she wants too. I'm not going to force her to deal with it alone....." Lance pulled his phone out and rested his arms against his knees as he looked at the dark screen.

        "That's why I'm here. So neither of you have to go through it alone. Emotional support is my strong suit. And bear hugs." The comment caused Lance to smile softly as he opened up his phone and went to the contacts list. He swiped past his galaxy themed wallpaper and went down the short list of names and pictures until he found his mothers smiling face. 

        He hesitated, thumb hovering over the call button. This would end in tears for both him and his mother, but hey, better out than in he supposed. Letting out a deep breath, he set the pad of his finger on the screen to call her.

        The caller id screen popped up and Lance put the phone to his ear, listening to it ring. It buzzed several times, and Lance thought for a moment that she wouldn't answer, but a click could be heard, followed by rustling as his mom answered the call. 

        "Lance?" Her voice came. He froze. "Sweetheart?" He couldn't do this. Not now. Maybe he should hang up and call back later.

        A hand fell on his shoulder, and Hunk was there, smiling, reassuring him that it was better to do get it over with now, and it would be ok later.

        "Hey, mom? I love you. Do you have time to talk for a bit?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy sweet mother of cheese I have a lot to say. 
> 
> First things first IM SO SORRY FOR MAKING YOU GUYS WAIT SO LONG FOR THIS I have had literally no motivation or time for writing and I hope you can all forgive me for the hiatus. Updates will hopefully be back to normal for good (Or at least for a while).
> 
> SECOND. Season 8 killed me. I'm typing this in the afterlife. r.i.p the entire fandom. And no, I will not all about my views in the show or the last season. Too many people are sending negative vibes so I'm going to avoid those by saying what happened, happened. There's no changing it. Might as well just move on.
> 
> THIRD. A lot of artists and writers I followed gave up on comics and stories just because of how much they hated the end of Voltron and it kinda ticks me off. Why quit now when people are looking for something to continue this fandom? The fandom now relies on people like me for new content so why give up when the fans need us the most?
> 
> FOURTH AND FINAL. Thank you all so much for the support! I really missed you guys!


	35. AUTHORS NOTE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And yet another setback

If I had a dime for every time something came up to put this story on hold, I would have enough money to buy a whole country and let only Klancers live there.  
I AM SO SORRY THAT I DID NOT UPDATE LAST WEEK as I PROMISED! I started my first job, my mom is moving, its exam week, and college prep is riding up on me like a bad wedgie. I might have to go back to a random schedule if this keeps up-  
Hopefully after the move and after exams things will settle down a bit more. After February 1rst ill be moved into my own place and not have to worry about school so much all the time. 

ON ANOTHER NOTE  
I had an idea ;)  
What would you guys think if I hosted a little contest for this story? Like, short fanfic or fanart and stuff like that?  
Prize wise I was thinking about gifting a hand made "space cat" shirt like the one in the story.  
Comment if you guys would be interested!

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment and leave critiques! They are greatly appreciated! I will also consider suggestions for a scene in the story!  
> If you want to draw fanart PLEASE DO! I would love to see it!   
> Official art tumblr: https://voltron-irobot.tumblr.com


End file.
